I am Naru Uzumaki
by Selfless-Ki
Summary: I am Naru Uzumaki and I relive days. There are ups and downs to this ability I have; I relive days with major mistakes, and until I fix those mistakes, I keep reliving them. But, unfortunately I'm continually attracting people who want my power. FEMNaru/Haku pairing. Warning: Language, Fighting, Nothing Too Explicit; Warning#2: Slow Romance, Slow Ability that Progresses, R
1. I am Naru Uzumaki

**Disclaimer: I Don't Own Anything You Publicly Recognize as Someone Else's. This is a FAN-fiction. I'm just a fan. ^.^'**

**And sorry; My past, present, and future tenses are kind of all jumbled together, but I'm trying to fix that right now. *I'm my own beta-reader, sadly. **

**NARUTO'S P.O.V Female!Naruto**

**Side Info:** Pairing is **Haku/Fem!Naru** , Romance is going to take a while, though because they're still in their early teens/ kids. They're not going to get anywhere serious yet. But, yes, there is minor cute couply scenes because I still need to work on those.

**Setting:** Canon, but due to Naruto's "Gift" a lot of this will either be repeated or changed, just a warning.

**Warning:** The rating may go up because of language. But, if you're young and know not to say bad words, then we don't really have a problem, do we? Oh, and Naruto still says her _catch phrase_, I'm just limiting the amount that she says it. Simply because I like that phrase; it's what makes her Naruto! It reflects her personality, Believe it. ;)

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_****-THIS CHAPTER WAS REVISED-****_

Please enjoy, though. :)

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**Chapter 1: I am Naru Uzumaki.**

There were so many things that I wouldn't want to wake up to. The bright and early sun was one of them, as was my alarm clock. Today was the day that I had to go back to the academy, again, to learn things I already knew. There was a bunch of things I already knew, for I knew I was special, and I had a gift that made me stand out against all the other students in Konoha.

I am Naruto Uzumaki, and five years ago today I learned that I relive days. Though, special abilities like my own weren't all that surprising. I grew up in this country which was full of ninja, and ninja in training with spectacular abilities. My 'power' is different, though. It's not a jutsu, like everyone else's is. I don't relive the days willingly. I'm forced to relive them; and I keep reliving them until I make a change. I was lucky enough to learn this whenever I was in old man Hokage's office, reading up on the clan's of Konohagakure, and I shocked to find that what I could do wasn't any kind of jutsu at all, from what I could tell. But, then again, I couldn't really be sure, there wasn't anything on life callings in the libraries.

But reliving days? That didn't really bother me much. My gift gave me confidence, with knowing that I could relive days, and change whatever I didn't like; even if I'd have to relive that day again because I changed the wrong thing, but the confidence it gave me was a bonus. And that confidence was really needed. For as long as I knew, about 8 years maybe, I was always abused for something I still don't understand.

It wasn't much of physical abuse, it was more what they were saying around me and to me, how they acted around me. The time I had learned to speak and kind of understand what other people were saying, it drove spears through my heart. The non-military villagers of Konoha could be really cruel. The mothers would keep their children away from me, and forbid their children from playing with the village demon. But, the verbal abuse soon slowed down, and almost stopped completely whenever I was old enough to enter the academy.

But that hadn't stop the scornful looks that the civilian's aimed at me as I walked down the streets.

Somehow, five years ago, I'd managed to learn to tune them out; with a lot of trouble. I had something else to focus on, instead of the hateful civilians. It was my life, and I was going to live it, without anyone putting me down. I'm going to be the First Lady Hokage! This ability only gave me more ground. I knew I could relive days, and it made me relieved that I didn't have this ability back when the civilians were being openly cruel; I'd seriously hate to have to relive the days that I was shunned by the people that I was aiming to protect.

Some day, I was going to prove to them; I knew I would.

I exist, and I_ am not_ a demon.

* * *

Looking over at the alarm clock, I know I'm going to be late again for class. I felt the familiar panic rising in my chest... If I hurry; take my shower, put my clothes on and fix a bowl of cereal; I could get there with a few minutes to spare still. I know that other kids would be eating their breakfast with their families, unlike m the only twelve-year-old ninja academy student without a family or even a real home; a _real_ outcast.

I sat myself up from my semi-warm and cozy bed, and made a mad dash to the bathroom for a really quick warm shower. After I was done, I put on my usual orange shorts, black shirt, and orange and blue jacket with a dark red spiral on the back that I think the old man had said was the Uzumaki clan symbol. But, it doesn't really matter to me; I'm the only Uzumaki alive.

I brushed my waist-length golden blonde hair back into its usual high pigtails, both reaching to my mid-back, and after putting on my standard blue sandals I almost left my bathroom. But as a quick after thought, I put my forest green goggles around my forehead to fill in the void I felt. Soon, it will be replaced with my head band.

A slow grin spread on my face, as I stared at myself in the mirror, watching as my whisker-birthmarks seemed to darken a bit by the action, and I dashed out my bathroom window.

* * *

Running. That is the only thing on my mind right now. Running quickly. _Quicker_ than my persuers. Even though their older than I am, I still have the upper hand, considering I'm a few feet ahead of them, and If I'd made a random turn to a path surprisingly, I might be able to get away from them. _ I'll be dead soon if I get caught_, my thoughts told me nervously as I managed to pick up speed a bit.

"Naru!" one of their voices came out as a growl behind me. I felt myself almost faltering in my footing but I decided to keep moving. Surprisingly, my speed started to gain. Now, they're at least a yard away from me, I threw my head back, turning it slightly and saw them falling behind, before turning my head back in my direction, my victorious grin spreading across my face.

I'm actually going to make it!—almost there…

There are two Chuunin running to catch up behind me, trying to catch me after I had played my latest prank. Oh; I've got them so good! I never thought that I could get _two_, though!

"There's no way you're going to catch me! Believe it!" I said through my grin.

I kept running, feathers in a bucket in one hand, and adhesive super glue in the other. Anyone could tell why they were mad, I'm just glad none of the civilians were out to see me running for my life, no telling what they would do if they saw the 'demon' running from honorble shinobi. I mentally rolled my eyes.

Earlier, I had set up a bucket of feathers and glue on the doorstep of the Hokage's office, hoping that I'd get the Hokage himself, but his assistants were the ones that had opened the door, and voila; they got feathered up. And now they were running after me, looking like big birds. But, right now, I have a class to get to. It's still our lunch break, but I'm going to be late for my next class if I didn't lose the Chuunin ninja behind me and quick...

"I've got a class to get to!" I sniggered, turning off onto the hidden road, my grin still lighting up my face. "Holler at me later!"

But, I didn't even get very far as I felt myself crash into somebody's body; the momentum of my speed, and the collision of their weight with mine had me tumbling forward, on top of the unsuspecting victim, causing me to blush furiously, and my objects to go flying in two ways, the feathers on one side of the path, and the glue to the other as it slowly ran down the side of a fence.

"I-Iruka-sensei?" I ask, my voice small and wary.

He glared angrily at me, before he let out a frustrated sigh.

I could still feel the blood rushing to my face, because well, I just fell on my teacher. And, as I tried to get up, he grabbed my wrist, looking as if he was holding in a yell as he began pulling me upright and holding my wrist, as if I'm a misbehaving toddler.

"Naru," he started speaking through his gritted teeth. "You're late for class, again!"

"No way! I still have fifteen minutes!" I countered, putting my free hand on my hip. "And why are you so mad? I didn't do anything. I was just getting back from Ichiraku's, 'ttebayo." His glare intensified.

"No, you only have one minute, but that's going to be used up; because we're going to settle this. You're going to officially apologize to the two nice shinobi, and do chore work for them after school's out, and if you refuse to do either of these, then you will not graduate the academy." His eyes stayed locked with mine in an expectant glance, before moving behind me to see that the two nice shinobi finally caught up to us.

"Fine, but I'm not cleaning their houses, believe it." I grumbled.

"What was that Naruto?" Iruka growled at me, his face gaining a scary effect as he was leaning over me until I cowered and stepped back a few steps before looking him in the eye.

"I said; I work fast, believe it!" my voice escaped me as a murmur with false cheer, while I lifted my fist to pump the air.

The Chuunin rolled their eyes and Iruka-sensei, grabbed at my wrist again, already starting to tow me back to the academy. I'm just glad that today is my last day of school, since tomorrow is going to be exams and graduation. Then, I'd finally be a ninja, and I can't help but smile at that thought.

* * *

Now, I was sitting in my last class of the day; bigender taijutsu training class. Why am I sitting? I don't know. It isn't my turn to fight yet. So I had room to think until my turn came. Think about what? Well, it's my 5th year anniversary of reliving days, and I haven't had to relive a day in the past month. That made me a bit on the edgy side, but not enough to be paranoid.

***5 Years ago today***

My seven-year-old body was slowly awaking, in the tunnel of the underground paths; the sewer. My feet were hurting, being bare, and the bruises from yesterday's training were long gone, thanks to my strange healing habit.

I walked a few feet outside of the tunnel I was in, and went to find the exit. I didn't live there, in the tunnel. No, I had my apartment now, but I was used to sleeping in the tunnel that I got used to it. But, now outside of the tunnel, seeing the night fall, I made my way back to my apartment so I could get a shower and sleep properly. I felt icky right now, and I could use it.

As I was walking by a few of the shinobi clan manner's I caught the feint scent of blood, before it got it got stronger as I neared my apartment. There was a lot of it. I could tell by smelling it, and normally I would have been curious, and tried to figure out what it was. Even my instincts were screaming at me to check to see for danger, but I was too tired, I glumly headed to my home, and walked inside to clean myself up.

I needed a shower more than anything right now.

After my shower I'd knocked out as soon as I lay in my small bed, curled up underneath the only sheets I had, with the only pillow I had blocking any warmth from getting out of my confinement, and my body completely covered.

There wasn't anything off about this. I'd slept for what felt like three hours, before I was woke up again by some unknown forces; Kami, I just really wanted to sleep.

I sat up quickly in my bed, looking for anything that would have woken up, only to find myself in the academy, in Iruka-sensei's class, with no one else there. I wasn't even in my bed. My eyes widened.

I looked around, feeling déjà vu happen as one student, Sasuke Uchiha made his way into the classroom with a bright smile on his face, and not at all what I was expecting, Kiba made his way in after him, familiarly demanding for attention from the boy.

_But this happened yesterday, 'ttebayo_, my thoughts were everywhere. What was happening? Didn't this happen yesterday?

This was the first frightening and amazing day of many.

***End* **

I was pulled out of my memory with a frown as Iruka-sensei started calling for the next two fighters, and I knew I was going to be next. Call it a gut feeling, or premonition, or you can just call it _Backwards Alphabetical Order_. The person that's name came before my own last name just came up the stairs from the arena, and now, it was my turn, and the person who's after me to fight.

"Naru Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, please; make your way down here to fight." Iruka said, checking his attendance sheet.

"I'm gonna win." I said, confidently staring the Uchiha boy down with a righteous glare. "Believe it."

"Hn." Sasuke sneered in response.

* * *

**An: This was edited, But I'm sure I still missed a lot of it. So, how was it? Interesting? I hope so. I just got this idea after thinking about an old show that I loved. **_**Tru Calling**_**, but there's a lot of things that are different, though. Any who!  
Review, please? And tell me if this story is worth continuing? **


	2. Punishment and Rewards

**Disclaimer still stands. **

**As for pairings; I decided to stick Naruto with Haku!. There aren't a lot of Fem!Naru/Haku pairing stories. There's hardly any. ^-^,**

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**2. Punishment and Rewards**

The taijutsu match was over just as quickly as it had begun. There were punches thrown around; mine was slightly surprising to the other students in our classroom, seeing as I was training to be a kunoichi, not a battlefront taijutsu specialist. But, even then, I was just as average as an average academy male genin. Just a little higher than the kunoichi-in-training in my class.

Everyone knew I was tomboyish, though.

But, aside from all of this, Sasuke made me look like an idiot while I fought him. Yeah, it's true that I kept up with him, matched him blow for blow; but he still won, because he was the fastest in our class.

It was only expected; he was a 'precious' Uchiha.

I wanted to snort at the name. His name didn't mean anything. I've trained hard ever since I could walk; even if I learned to walk a little later than everyone else, the point is; my hard work should have been rewarded. I should have been rewarded, I should have won. But, I didn't.

I grabbed my jacket from my cubby on the top floor, and quietly sulked as everyone else made their way out of the door. A smile still lit up my face, though as I realized that Iruka-sensei wasn't even watching us leave, he was writing things down in his notebook thing.

I picked up my pace, trying my hardest to quiet my walking and tried to squeeze through the small crowd of students, and landed myself behind a quiet, shy girl. A Hyuuga. Hinata Hyuuga. She looked a bit flustered as she tried to get herself through the crowd and probably even make her way home. Unfortunately for my attempt to escape, there stood the rest of my class all jammed through the door, whenever two voices stood out above all the rest.

"Get out of the way! Billboard-brow!" a shrill female's voice stood out.

"_You_ get of the way, Ino-pig!"

I could feel myself shaking as I started pushing against the crowd with my bare hands, being careful not to push the shy girl.

"How about both of you get your asses out the way!" I grumbled.

"Shut up, Idiot!" the voices shrieked together, as they made their way out the door, challenging each other in something girly, only the Kami know of.

"This doesn't concern you!" Ino Yamanaka; the girl with platinum blonde hair pulled back into a high pony tail and icy blue eyes with no pupils said. Her dark blue battle dress was out of my view, but I knew that she was wearing it.

And the girl beside her, her partner in crime, and her arch nemesis, Sakura, with her pink hair down and flowing, to the middle of her back with no restrictions besides the maroon headband that was tied at the top of her head had matched perfectly with her maroon fighting dress with the white circle of the Harunos'. Despite her family being ordinary civilians. This girl, Sakura was a brainiac in the entire class.

I watched as they dodged out the door, hearing their feet clamor down the halls, without the grace of any older shinobi, half wondering why they even chose to be kunoichi in the first place. But, then decided that I had no room to judge; I'm always loud.

I waited for everyone else to do the same as Sakura and Ino had, before I heard the voice that almost made me wet my pants in nervousness and fear.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" Iruka barked from his place across the room.

I turned around nervously to see Iruka-sensei with his hands on his hips and his expression intolerant. His dark eyes were staring right at me, and not _through_ me, like everyone else's would have. This irked me; especially since he was staring at me in exasperation.

_He caught me_, I mentally whined, faux tears easily streaming down my face in my newest distress.

"You have chore duty, remember?"

I sighed as I walked away from the door, glaring back in betrayal as everyone seemed to pick up their place and had sped out of the room quickly. _After_ I was caught. _Thanks guys, glad to know that my class is united as one, _I scowled.

"Izumo and Kotetsu are expecting you at their flat in exactly five minutes." Iruka informed me, grabbing my wrist again, and leading us both outside of the door. "It just so happens that I'm not going to be able to trust you, since you just tried to escape."

"I was not trying to escape," I argued. "I was just going to change my clothes! If I get this outfit messed up, then I'll look like a rag doll when I graduate."

"Mm-hmm," Iruka nodded. "I'm sure that's what you were doing. Which explains why you were so nervous trying to get out the door."

"Man, this is _so_ unfair!"

Iruka-sensei just chuckled in cruel amusement as I shook my head furiously.

* * *

I was finishing up with the last chore in Iruka-sensei's watch, 'Izumo and Kotetsu', the ninja's I glued and feathered, had left us to continue with their job that they needed to be paid for. Now, I took out their trash. Earlier I had to tell them sorry. I really had no choice because Iruka-sensei's strong hands had a hold of my right, most sensitive ear in just two of his fingers, making it hard for me to escape the mistreatment.

It was painful, but I got over it.

After I threw the last trash bag into the can, I wrapped my jacket around my waist and stuffed my hands in my pockets before meeting my sensei's softened gaze. I felt like shrugging off the look, but I didn't. I was just really tired.

"All finished?" he asked, needlessly. Obviously I was done.

"Yeah," I replied anyways.

He opened the fence to Kotetsu's back yard, and wrapped one arm around my shoulder, in exactly the same manner he did every time I repaid what I got in trouble for, and he led us out. "Mind telling me why you did it?"

"Well, I thought that I would be feathering Sandaime-sama." I began with a frown. "And I don't even know why I did it then."

He sighed, but nodded.

After a while of walking in silence in the general direction of home, Iruka-sensei had turned to me, and tilted my chin up, assuring that my lively blue eyes met his dark brown ones as a smile pulled at the corner of his lips.

"How about we go get some ramen? Eh, Naru?" his smile showed and I couldn't stop the grin that lip up my face.

"You're paying!" I smiled and twisted out of his grip, dashing as quickly as I can to Ichiraku's with Iruka trailing behind me, trying to keep up.

"Not if I get there first!" he loudly replied to me, halfheartedly.

"You wish!" I kicked up my speed, and soon enough I was sitting in my usual stool at my favorite Noodle Stand with a brilliant grin sparking my face as Teuchi, the owner of the stand, looked at me with a smile of his own and expectant dark eyes.

His graying hair was a familiarity with me. Just like his voice.

"Naru-chan," He greeted me happily, knowing my appetite. "What can I get you?"

I barely heard Iruka-sensei come in behind me, but I knew he was there. He was faster than me in all rights, and I knew he was holding back during our little race. I was still upset about that, a bit.

But for now, he's buying me dinner? Yeah; I'll get over it. My smile grew a bit more.

"I'll have a bowl of beef ramen," I answered Teuchi, nodding my head as a confirmation.

"On Iruka-sensei's wallet?" Teuchi asked, eyes shifting to my sensei for a moment, already knowing the answer as his eyes shown amusement.

Iruka-sensei seemed to manage looking put out, as I turned to look over to him and I ended up rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, the little brat beat me." He shook his head in defeat.

"Then run faster! You're getting old, Iruka-sensei." I tutted him.

Teuchi chuckled at us before turning around to shout into the dim window, where I could smell the taunting aroma of ramen.

"Ayame-chan; I need a bowl of beef ramen, and," he turned to Iruka-sensei with a smiling face.

"I'll have the same; thank you, Teuchi-san,"

"Make that two bowls of beef ramen!" then he winked at me like we had a private inside joke. Again; he knew my appetite, which I'm grateful for. "But, you might want to have a few more bowls waiting; we know Naru-chan has the appetite of 5 grown men."

Iruka-sensei, Teuchi-san, and Ayame-san all joined in the laughter while I sat and pouted.

"I'm a growing girl!" this only seemed to make them laugh more, before I decided to join in with my own giggles.

* * *

The next morning, I awoke in my bed, yawning loudly from the left over exhaustion, and an excited, but nervous grin pulled at the edges of my mouth.

I stretched a little before walking to my bathroom, stripping myself of my black and white frog pajamas, until I was completely ready to take my shower. I immediately turned the water on, cold first, hot second, and waited a minute for the water to get right enough for me to cleanse myself before I stepped in and washed.

As soon as I was done, I threw on my usual ninja clothes and sandals, and brushed my hair into its usual pigtails, but today I decided to leave my goggles. I'm going to pass, believe it.

I didn't even spend too much time in the mirror today; I even left through the door instead of my bathroom window.

"I just hope today isn't one of those days," I said, scowling at the thought.

* * *

A whole lump of people had gone before me, like usual. And it was my turn to go now. I watched as everyone else walked outside, with their hitai-ates, the head bands showing the Village Hidden in the Leaves emblem. I was going to get one. I knew I was. I felt it, no matter what. But I still kept myself from grinning. That was like a jinx permitting something bad to happen. That's not going to happen on my watch. It'd be a mistake, and I kind of don't want to relive this day, I'm nervous enough as it is.

I walked into the classroom and saw Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei sitting behind their table with a bunch of papers set in file folders on one side of the desk, and folded standard blue hitai-ates on the other side. I sure hope this test is easy; Mizuki-sensei didn't seem to like me too much, not that he said anything about it if he didn't. I just got a noticably bad feeling around him.

"Alright, Naru-chan," Iruka, looked down to my name form. "This year; all you have to do to pass is create one functioning clone."

I flinched a bit. Those weren't my best, either. Matter of fact, I sucked at making clones.

Though, luckily Sakura had caught me training a few weeks to a month ago and I had practiced with her reluctantly after realizing that she was probably just trying to befriend me so that I wouldn't go after Sasuke, but it didn't matter. I still got somewhat better at it, the clone making. Though, it probably had something to do with the instinct that flared whenever I kept trying. Soon enough, weeks after Sakura's help, I had made a functioning clone, though whenever it poofed away, I'd got a hold of extra memory... like seeing out of someone else's eyes maybe?

Right now, I let myself breathe a little and closed my eyes before opening them again, eyes set in determination as I molded my chakra to my current need for it.

_Kage Bunshin no Justu!_', it came as an after thought. I don't know what made me call it that, but 'Bunshin no Jutsu' didn't seem to do it any justice.

The clone was standing there by my side, looking very well alive-thankfully, and very much like me, right down to the whiskers. It looked like a really good clone, the best one I've ever made. But, I was still nervous. This is a graduation exam, I need to become a genin.

As I watched Iruka-sensei's and Mizuki-sensei's eyes widen, I silently hoped that I'd pass. I mean, face it, no matter how confident I was, I was secretly insecure that I may not even pass this gig. I wouldn't know what to do if I'd failed. But, I prepared myself for the worse, just in case.

"Uh..." Mizuki gaped a bit, before recovering. "We said make a clone, not a shadow clone." Iruka glared at his co-worker a bit before turning to me with a smile on his face, making my heart flutter in more hope than what I had as my clone disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"Great Job, Naru-chan." Iruka grinned at me. "You passed."

A smile finally took over my face as I whooped and pumped my fist. "I'm a real Ninja now!"

"Bring in Uchiha Sasuke," Iruka tossed me my hitai-ate, and I tied it around my forehead as I left, having no intention of telling that bastard to come in. But, eh? Why not? Might as well, since as I'm a ninja now.

* * *

**AN: I know Naruto didn't pass in Canon, but this isn't Canon. ^.^ ok, it's going to be at least 45% Canon, but not a carbon copy, I actually have a plot for this. Naruto passed during her first try because I really didn't feel like talking about Mizuki being traitorous; we know he's a traitorous bastard. And she learned the Kage Bunshin as you all seen, because well; I didn't want her to steal the scroll that wouuld be following canon a bit too much, and I don't want to do that. **

**Anyways; 2 updates in one day! I'm on a roll! I probably won't update for a while, but I'm a spontaneous updater. I update when I'm least expected to. :) **

**So; your thoughts on this? **


	3. Tracker Nin

**AN: Disclaimer still stands. Oh, and warning; I stole a little bit of dialogue from Canon. xD You'll forgive me though. It was needed. (: **

**Sorry, I'm kind of rushing to get to Haku's meeting. Then I'll slow down so that it will be in regular tempo. I mean, why wait? I need them to meet NOW! Aha. But, I'm not going to rush THEM together.**

***=edited.**

* * *

**3. Tracker Nin**

We were put on teams the next day. I was put on team 7 with the Uchiha asshole and the Haruno. I didn't bother to try and mingle with them, even whenever our sensei finally arrived. Though I admit, our team was going to be a little bit interesting; a girl who hates the Uchiha, a girl who loves the Uchiha, and the Uchiha hating both girls and their sensei.

I had to wonder why we were even stuck on teams of three, though. We're ninja, and we should have been independent; like the past Hokage's—they didn't need any help. Ninja are capable of doing things without it. We can handle ourselves now, right?

It appears I was wrong.

It didn't take long for us to mess up. The day after we were assigned our sensei, Kakashi-sensei, we were in training grounds 7, minus breakfast, and we were already being reprimanded.

He had us take a bell test, with only two bells. He'd said, _"If you're not ready to kill me, then you won't be able to take the bells," _of course we thought that he'd meant, we as _individuals_ wouldn't be able to kill him, so we'd set off on our own. That should have been something right there. We're genin! He's a *Jounin, and Sakura had even pointed this out.

I got caught in an obvious trap with the bells lying on the ground, much to my embarrassment… but got cut down from it by Sasuke's kunai and shuriken attack on Kakashi. Sakura got pulled into a genjutsu, and Sasuke was pulled underground with a head under jutsu, leaving him with 'just a head'. Sakura, who had recovered from her genjutsu attack, saw this and had fainted, and thus we wasted time.

But, that wasn't our mistake, of course. It was one of them, but not the important one.

Kakashi-sensei had gone into a whole speech about teamwork and had struck a chord within me, and I'm guessing my teammates also. And, I was still tied to center one of the three poles that were in the middle of the training ground. But, he soon gave us another chance; it just happened to be while Sakura and Sasuke ate beside me. They ended up feeding me, though, and we ended up passing for our display of teamwork.

That's how we got here now.

For some stupid reason, we—team 7, were sitting on a pallet on the floor of the Uchiha manor. The clan head himself looming over us, even though he was sitting down behind his coffee table. His son, Sasuke was sitting on his right, and his wife was gone on some kind of mission; oddly enough. Their other son, Itachi, had been gone for a long time, and no one really knew where he was, even odder.

Actually, the last time I've saw him out and about was about five years ago, when I first relived a day. Actually, I guess it was whenever I first relived a day continually. Though, I didn't say anything relating to the older Uchiha's absence. I just kept my mouth shut, surprisingly.

"Aa. Uchiha-sama," Kakashi-sensei nodded once in greeting to the stoic man. There seemed to be an underlying tone to his voice.

"Hatake-san," he slid his gaze around the three of us non-Uchiha's, his gaze resting on me for the longest, making me uncomfortable and eager to get out of there. "You've brought your subordinates, I see."

Kakashi let his gaze slip past me and Sakura and his gaze landed on Sasuke without much thought.

"Your meeting was called at the last minute, I wasn't even sure if they both would come."

Fugaku Uchiha. Cold, and an asshole, just like how Sasuke was to everyone in our class. Though, he didn't always use to be like that. I remembered those days when he used to smile openly, but he never did associate with the others. He only talked to a few whenever he felt like it, and over the past five years he grew colder, and more arrogant. I guess it was just because of his high and mighty father, and their high and mighty name.

"Hm. Let's just get past this, and get to the point of why you're really here." Fugaku's voice had lost its false 'warmth' or in this case, guest greeting and the room chilled. But, he continued as if nothing changed. "How's their team progress? Have they passed?"

My eyes narrowed. What was that supposed to mean? That we wouldn't qualify as a team? I was slowly starting to hate the Uchiha clan even more than I already did. I knew I was.

"They've passed Uchiha-sama."

After another round of silence I almost snarled at the Uchiha head. This meeting was useless, he could have met up with Kakashi-sensei if he only wanted to know if we passed or not. There really was no reason why we were sitting here, while listening to some arrogant cold bastard deliver judgment on our team.

"I really don't see the reason why we were called here," I grumbled quietly to myself; Kakashi-sensei and Sakura heard me though. Luckily the cold man hadn't heard.

"Quit being disrespectful, Naruto," Sakura glared at me from the corner of her eye.

I scoffed before looking up at the Uchiha with defiant eyes. If he had any questions about _me_, or my team, I'm not answering.

He didn't ask about me, though. And for this, I was grateful. It was none of his business in the first place. Besides, there wasn't much to know about me.

"And Sasuke's progress on your team?"

"With all due respect, Fugaku-san," Kakashi begun, his voice seemed to go colder than I've ever heard it before. Maybe he'd heard something beneath the lines of Fugaku's 'innocent' question. It wouldn't surprise me. "We've only been a team for merely even a day. They've just become a team last night, and there's not much progress to inform you of."

Fugaku hummed in acceptance, picking up his tea-cup from the coffee table set in front of us.

"I see. It appears that I'm just going to have to wait until your team has more experience, then." He answered after putting his tea down. I saw Sasuke's eyes darken a bit, and his gaze shoot to his father in an emotion I couldn't tell, but it looked shockingly close to disappointment.

_My_ eyes stayed in a stubborn scowl as I glared at the Uchiha man.

"I guess you're all dismissed."

_Pointless meeting_, I shook my head.

* * *

"You attacked an innocent rabbit, Idiot!" Sakura's shrill voice rang through my sensitive ears. I frowned in response. I was sure there was someone there!

It was two weeks after the meeting with Captain Teme, and our team was on a mission away from the village, all courtesy goes to me, of course. Hold you applause, hold your applause! We were escorting an old drunk back to his home, the Land of Waves, a very _wet_ place.

We were already attacked once, and Kakashi had threatened to pull us out of this mission because it was way above our skill level, and because I had somehow gotten in contact with the poison on one of the demon brothers of Kirigakure, the Hidden Mist village. But, that didn't matter, I cut myself to drain the nasty blood out so I was fit to continue, and besides the old man guilt tripped us into keep going anyways whenever we were riding in a boat, still escorting him home. So there was no way that we could just back out like that!

And all of that happening brings us to where we are now.

"I'm not an idiot Sakura!" I argued back, angry that she didn't even believe me whenever I said someone was there. "I could have sworn someone was there!"

Sasuke stayed quiet, but he was a bit tense staying near the old man, Tazuna; the reason why we were even in this mess.

Kakashi-sensei had earlier went to check out the rabbit with a blank look on his face as he held the rabbit up by its ears—animal cruelty—but his eyes stayed blank a bit as his body went rigid. He knew someone was there too, right? I wasn't just out of my wits, I'm sure of it now.

"Everyone, duck!" he shouted at us; I pulled Sakura's arm, she pulled Sasuke's, and Sasuke yanked the old man's ankle, causing the man to fall face forward, legs being held by a child who was much, much stronger than he is. If it wasn't for our situation, I would have laughed at the old man's predicament. That's what he gets for disgracing me as the next Hokage.

"If it isn't Zabuza Momochi," Kakashi said, coming up from his own crouch with an aloof air around him, but I knew he must have been somewhat alert. He was looking at a tree that was facing our tree that we took cover by.

The guy, Zabuza was standing on his sword that was stuck in the tree's bark. He wore no shirt, grey loose fighting pants with black pinstripes, and leg and arm warmers with black camouflage, with black ninja sandals. His lower face was covered; wrapped in bandages up to his ears. His eyes were visible, though, and his hitai-ate was tied diagonally, and sloppily around the left side of his head, messing his dark hair. But that sword of his… his sword was a huge one, a shiny silver one, a zanbatou, if I remembered anything from the sword books back at the academy. This guy was serious, not someone to mess with.

But, I'm me…

"Rogue ninja of the Hidden Mist," Kakashi continued, keeping his eye on the enemy, and his senses widespread, staying alert, I'm guessing. Oh well,

Just as I was about to launch myself, Kakashi held his arm out in front of me causing me to halt in my steps. "Huh?"

"You're only going to get in my way, Naru," out of the corner of my eye I saw his lone visible eye get serious. "This is my fight and you're all going to stay out of this. This guy is serious, and this is not some game. Stay back and protect the bridge builder that's your only job."

I frowned but did as I was told, and stayed where I was at.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan eye…? Right?" Zabuza asked, finally speaking, his raspy, rough voice sending shivers down my spine, and Sasuke into tense mode with a glare on his face. I couldn't tell Sakura's reaction, she was on the other side of Tazuna.

"It doesn't matter, I was ordered to kill the old man." Zabuza continued, arrogant wasn't even a good enough word to describe his behavior. He was acting as if my team wouldn't even be a problem… like we're just mere pests.

I almost snorted. Even if we weren't allowed in this fight, Kakashi-sensei was strong. He could handle this arrogant bastard himself.

"Quick; mangi formation! Protect the bridge builder." Kakashi urged. "I taught you all teamwork, now is the time to use it." His hand went to his head band to the side that covered his other eye before he lifted it completely to show his eye closed, with a scar going down it. Then he opened his eye to reveal an odd red eye with a black dot surrounded by black tomoes where his pupil should have been.

_His eye…_, I thought. _His eyes don't match_. "What the…?"

"Looks like I get to see the Sharingan in action. This is an honor." Zabuza seemed to be smirking behind his mask of bandages.

"What the hell is a Sharingan?" I stated; frustrated that I didn't even know what was going on.

"It's a rare power, it resides in the eyes. The user of this visual doujutsu can instantly see and understand any genjutsu, ninjutsu, and taijutsu, and reflect any attack back on the attacker. There's still a whole lot more to it than that…" It was Sasuke who answered me though.

That know-it-all… I still didn't get what the big deal was.

"Right, boy," Zabuza countered. "But you didn't even scratch the surface." Then he launched into full detail of what the Sharingan could do. Getting a lesson from the enemy wasn't in my best interest, so I kind of tuned him out. But, I think he said something about it copying techniques down to the smallest detail. "As for you, Jounin, in the assassination unit of the hidden mist, we had a standing order to destroy you on sight. Your profile is in our bingo book. They called you the man who copied over a thousand jutsu, Kakashi; the Copy Ninja."

_Sugoi!_ I thought. _He copied over a thousand jutsu? Imagine all the things that I could learn!_ But what's the bingo book, and why is Kakashi-sensei in it?

"But let's get this over with; Hand over the man. Now," Zabuza growled.

We finally got into mangi formation. Sasuke was in front, I was on the right, and Sakura taken up left position. As I reached in my kunai holster on my right leg, I heard the sound of blades running along sturdy material, and I assumed Sakura and Sasuke were doing the same.

"So, I have to eliminate you first, Kakashi? So be it." He disappeared from his position on his sword, on the tree, and moved to the water. My eyes weren't quick enough to watch his movement, but my peripheral vision did pick up where he appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"He's over there!" I shouted, trying to help Kakashi-sensei.

Sakura deemed herself worthy enough to help, too. "Standing on the water, sensei!"

Seconds after we helped sensei, mist started to shroud my vision… no, our vision. I could feel Sakura and the bridge builder panicking beside me. Sasuke was still rigid. But, the mist still kept getting thicker, and it kept getting thicker until, "He's vanished," my voice was a little bit higher than normal, I admit. This shit is scary. But, I was just glad my voice wasn't shaky or anything.

"Sensei—!" Sakura began, Kakashi cut her off though.

Kakashi-sensei was a few feet in front of us now, having gotten ready for his battle, his own kunai blade held in his hand, and his body in a crouch. I felt my fast beating heart slow down as I calmed myself from whatever alarmed me, letting Kakashi's ready form reassure me.

"He'll come after me first." Sensei answered Sakura.

"But why? Who is he?"

"Zabuza Momochi…the former leader of the Hidden Mist Assassination Unit. He's a master of the silent killing technique."

"Silent?" I questioned, feeling a dim sense of fear spiking my emotions, making my heart beat faster, after I had already calmed down.

"As the name suggests, it happens in an instant without sound or warning of any kind. It's so fast; you pass from this life without realizing what's happened. My Sharingan can't fully neutralize it; so don't lower your guard." He seemed to pause for a second. "But if we fail we only lose our lives."

"How could you say that, sensei?" Sakura yelped.

But, if anything, his statement made me shake out of whatever it was that kept coming over me. I was more alert, and waiting and watching for something to happen.

A few more seconds, and the mist was still getting thicker, making me start to have my doubts. If Kakashi-sensei's Sharingan couldn't neutralize it…? This mist _was_ awfully thick. "It's still getting thicker," I mumbled disbelievingly.

"We're surrounded by an ocean. The mists ever present here, they're bound to be thicker than normal fog." Tazuna said shakily.

I felt something dark coming over me, causing my legs to quiver a bit, but I tightened my grip on my kunai, and tried my best to force my legs still, keeping my stance beside the bridge builder.

I think they called this dark looming sensation 'saki' back in the academy; a ninja usually released their saki in order to alarm someone, or in some cases to calm someone be that falsely or to gain someone's trust genuinely. I couldn't remember for the life of me what it was called. But, this one, Zabuza's saki was obviously to harm us.

"Eight points. Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, carotid artery, kidneys, heart… But which will be my kill point?" Zabuza's voice was deadly low, as his saki seemed to get stronger at this point.

But, then there was another feeling, probably to counter the bad saki, which made me feel a bit calmer, I'm guessing it was Kakashi's. And it seemed I guessed right.

"Sasuke, calm down. I'll protect you with my life. All of you," he said a smile in his voice. "I will not allow my comrades to die." He turned to face us, with his eyes closed, giving us the impression that he was smiling at us.

His saki was working, though, and my body seemed to be getting exhausted with the way it was being tampered with by bad mixes of energy, but I stood my ground.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Zabuza spoke, sounding much closer than he had been. Actually, he was too close. He was on my side, a few feet behind the bridge builder, his blade was held out toward us. "It's over."

I froze.

But Kakashi must have heard his voice, he was only about three feet ahead of us, so he didn't have to move too much to turn back to Zabuza with his Sharingan going as he appeared behind Zabuza with a kunai, stabbing him in his stomach, pouring out his bodily fluids… which so happened to be, water?

_Kuso; a water clone?_, I thought.

Suddenly there was another Zabuza, I was sure this one was the real one, and he turned the tables by appearing near Kakashi-sensei.

"Sensei!" I gasped.

"Die!" Zabuza growled out, and swinging his sword clean across Kakashi-sensei's waist, cutting him in half… and causing me and Sakura's panic to rise even higher. Zabuza only seemed angry though… and I saw why whenever I saw that that Kakashi was a water clone, much like Zabuza's own.

"Don't move," another Kakashi had a kunai to Zabuza's throat, though, at the ready. "Now it's over. You're finished."

* * *

The fight was in fact, not over. And Zabuza Momochi, well, he was finished, as far as I could tell anyways. Zabuza and Kakashi had quickly erupted into battle. Of miniscule jutsus to blade fighting.

We thought Kakashi could handle himself. As it turned out, he very well needed our help. It was only about five minutes into the battle whenever me and Sasuke had to come into play, and act as heroes for our sensei.

Sakura was ordered to stay put. Actually, Kakashi-sensei kept urging us to run, but we didn't listen, of course. But that is why his ass was saved by my genius-ness. I had devised a plan, while that Zabuza was trying to give us a scare, though it worked a little bit, and he landed a few hits… okay, he knocked me down, then he knocked Sasuke down. But that didn't matter.

My plan worked, with Sasuke's help. I had attacked him with a bunch of shadow clones, and while Zabuza was dispersing them, I slipped into one of my clone's backpacks, and made them act as the real me. Soon all of my other clones were gone, except for the one that was holding me in their backpack, and I'd used the transformation jutsu to transform into a fuuhi shuriken, just like the one in my backpack, and I hid behind it.

My clone pulled me out, along with the shuriken and tossed me to Sasuke. Sasuke realized that I was with the shuriken, and he caught on quickly. After a bit of showing off—that bastard—he threw us, the shuriken and I, in water clone Zabuza's direction. (The real Zabuza had sent him over to make off with us, while the real one held Kakashi-sensei in a water prison on the lake) The water clone easily dodged it, like I was hoping it would, and the shuriken and I made our way toward the real one.

The real one caught the shuriken, hand still in the prison and a sneer seemed to be presenting itself in the man's eyes. He'd said, "_So you passed the clone and aimed for my real body. Smart, but not smart enough._" Aha. Not smart enough? Please. Me and the shuriken had long since separated paths, and it appears that Zabuza, and everyone else, except for Sasuke didn't see the 'second shuriken'. But, Zabuza saw it coming his was a little bit too late. This time he dodged me, jumping up in the air and turning toward Sasuke growling out in annoyance, "_I told you, a shuriken cannot touch me,_" Sasuke had smirked.

I changed back into my original form, and in my hand was a kunai I'd pulled. Everyone had been watching me with shock as I soared threw the air, and I threw my kunai with perfect aim, aiming for him. And he just barely dodged that too, by pulling his hand out of the water prison, though shockingly the kunai actually came into contact with his face, leaving a small line of blood. And seconds later he announced that he would destroy me with the shuriken that he caught spinning wildly in his hands as I plopped into the water.

Kakashi caught the shuriken with a plate on his gloves and then they began to fight, while I was still in the water. They gone from water dragons to running around in circles childishly as Kakashi copied the other Jounin, to Kakashi ultimately defeating Zabuza with his Sharingan and executing a water styled Giant Vortex Jutsu.

Water had gone all over the place, and when it drained down, Kakashi and Zabuza were in the tree. Zabuza was pinned to the tree with a bunch of kunai that Kakashi had thrown at him from a distance and Kakashi had been right about to kill him.

Now, as I tried to watch the two in the tree, I saw Zabuza's body fly down from the surprising height with two senbon in his neck, laying motionless whenever he landed none too gently.

From where I was standing, back with the bridge builder, Sasuke and Sakura, I saw small dabs of blood around the senbon and I looked at it curiously. That was all it took to make him stop hopping around with the will to kill us?

Kakashi-sensei hopped down from his spot in the tree, and landed near Zabuza's body checking to see what happened. Before turning to where the senbon must have come from, then turning back to us. "He's dead," he said as he recovered his Sharingan eye with his head band.

"You were right, it was his last battle," a voice said, from up in a tree a few trees away from Kakashi-sensei, causing us all to look up to where the voice came from, where sensei was already looking. The voice sounded like it belonged to a boy, but even then his voice was very soft. He chuckled a bit, startling us even more.

He was wearing a white mask with two slits that looked to work as seeing-eye holes. His hair was tied back into a bun, with two pins keeping it in place, and the front sides divided from the rest, being in their own separate ties. And he seemed to be wearing heavy dark clothing. A dark green kimono, over a dark long sleeved shirt, and charcoal black pants with grey stripes, with Chinese maintenance-like sandals. Not something I'd even think to fight in.

Kakashi-sensei then decided to join us, a frown must have been on his face, by the way his eyes were down-casted the tiniest bit.

"Thank you, I've been tracking Zabuza for a long time, waiting for a chance to finally take him down," the boy bowed to Kakashi-sensei. Kakashi-sensei sounded wary whenever he replied, though, despite the boy's help.

"By your mask, I see that you are a tracker ninja from the village hidden in the mist."

"Impressive, you're well informed." The boy rose from his bowing position.

I wasn't sure how I felt about this. This kid, comes out of nowhere, takes down _our_ enemy with just two senbon, and now… ugh. _Who does he think he is? He can't just waltz in here and take our kill like that!_, I thought, gritting my teeth but keeping my mouth shut. I don't know what this kid could do to me.

I didn't succeed.

"Who are you? To just walk in to the middle of a battle and take down that ninja like it was nothing?" my voice was rough on the spot, I didn't care though, even if it sounded like I was growling.

The boy vaguely turned toward me. But he didn't answer me. He disappeared from his spot on the tree and reappeared in a swirl of leaves, right by Zabuza.

"Easy, Naruto," it was Kakashi-sensei that answered me, he set his hand on my shoulder, holding me in my place. "He's not our enemy."

"That wasn't what I meant," I argued, looking at sensei. "He just took Zabuza down like it was nothing. He's probably no older than I am, and he took Zabuza down! Like…like he barely lifted a finger!"

"I know," he answered. "There are people who are younger than you, yet stronger than me," he didn't turn to fully look at me, but I knew he was looking at me. Whatever, I was still upset as I looked back up to the boy, the tracker ninja.

"Your struggle is over, I must deal with the remains." He stated. "There are many secrets in this body. It must not be allowed to get into the wrong hands. Please excuse me, fare well." And he disappeared with Zabuza by using some transportation hand seals.

My breath came shakily as I felt like screaming at the boy. Why was he taking Zabuza's body? And by the time the boy was completely gone, I let out a low growl, but I tried harder this time to keep my mouth shut.

"We still aren't finished with our mission yet," Kakashi spoke, his hand was still on my shoulder, making me turn up to look at him. "We still have to get the bridge builder to his bridge." He smiled behind his mask. The bridge builder laughed a bit nervously, and we all turned our attention to him.

"Sorry for causing all of this trouble, but ah… you can rest at my house when we get to the village." he chuckled a bit more.

"Alright." Kakashi-sensei answered him, turning around and beginning to walk. "Let's get a move on." But, after about four steps, Kakashi-sensei stopped suddenly, and then he immediately began to fall to the ground face-first, fainting.

"Kakashi-sensei!" I screamed, running over to him, along with Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna.

* * *

**AN: Heheh. ^.^ I finally got her to meet Haku! Hooray! ;D that was a _long_ chapter. _Eleven_ pages. 4,500 something words… aha. But, it's okay. I'll have one of these every once in a while.**

**Aheheh... Fugaku and the Uchiha Clan are ALIVE. Shocker, right? But, Itachi-kun seems to be _Missing_? Stay tuned and You'll find out what's going on with them, along with everyone else! **

**I might even switch up the P.O.V's a bit after this chapter. But only when it's necessary.**

**I only skipped their fight because I decided to leave it the same, and there's no need typing every single thing of that out unless I decided to change it. :)**

**Please review? I'll beg if I have to! D':**


	4. Training

**Warning: I'm going to start typing it in _3rd P.O.V_ from here on out, it's much easier. **

* * *

**4. Training**

They made it to the bridge builder's home safely with no more ambushes than they would have originally expected yesterday. Now, Naruto and her teammates were in the kitchen as they waited for their sensei to wake up. Though, Sakura suspected that he wouldn't wake up for quite a while since he overexerted himself the other day, she even told Naru and Sasuke as much.

Naru stared intently at her bowl of cereal with a face of greed sitting at the kitchen table with a spoon held tightly in her clenched fist. _Oh boy!_, she thought hungrily, her eyes shining an oppressive dark blue, making her look like an impressive predator to everyone that was watching her curiously as they all took a step back to protect themselves from her hungry gaze.

"I could eat a whole horse," she murmured, absently licking her lips.

"I wouldn't doubt it, you cow," Sakura glared at her, but Naru just waved it off.

"What's wrong, Sakura-_chan_," she laughed good naturedly. "Sasuke-_kun_? You guys can eat, you know. You're being kind of rude just standing there watching me eat; I think Tsunami-san said make ourselves comfortable, not stand around like we don't feel welcome in their house."

Tazuna just looked at the blonde girl, before moving his gaze back to the pinkette, before focusing on the black haired boy. Sasuke, the girl called him, walked over to where the blonde girl was sitting and sat on her right side as Sakura sat on the other side of Sasuke, both with a bowl of cereal already in front of them, courtesy of his daughter. He couldn't care less if they ate or not. But, it is considered rude not to, not that he minded.

"When you're done, I'm sure Tsunami will call you up if your sensei wakes up, alright?" and with that, he walked out of the room to leave the three to their devices.

Naru cut her blue eyes to stare at the man's retreating form out of the corner of her eye, before continuing to wolf down the contents of her bowl. Once that was finished, she reached out in front of her for her orange juice and drank the liquid as slowly as she could before she turned to look at her teammates fully.

"So, what do you think yesterday was about?" she asked.

"What do you mean, dobe?" Sasuke glared at her from the corner of his eye, having just finished his bowl of cereal as well.

"That tracker-nin-whatever..." she turned her gaze to Sakura, who was still eating. "How did he beat Zabuza so easily?"

"Naruto," Sakura scowled. "He's a tracker nin. He recieved the right training for assinations and other stuff that involves killing. I wouldn't doubt it if that was the only thing he learned how to do, but..."

"But, he didn't put much effort behind it," Sasuke supplied blandly, before shutting his mouth again.

It soon got quiet as Naru thought it over. She couldn't put anything together, unfortunately, but she found that everything about that tracker nin was starting to upset her. She wasn't getting a good gut feeling in her about all of this. But, she didn't want to think about that now. Shifting her focus, she waited for something else to catch her attention, and soon enough she found her ears ringing from the extra noise she was picking up.

The noise seemed to be coming from upstairs, the room that they dropped their sensei off in. It wasn't much but a few swifts of fabric, and a small groan. Naru focused her attention on it, vaguely recognizing that the groan belonged to her sensei, and she heard light snaps of footsteps walking across the wooden floor as Tsunami walked toward him. A smile lit her face.

"Kakashi-sensei is awake!" she giggled happily, being the first out of her seat, and she raced up the stairs to their respective sensei's guestroom with a bright smile on her face.

"Hold on, Naruto!" Sakura shouted after her as Sasuke too, got up and raced after her, along with herself, though she was a few steps ahead of him.

Naru just rolled her eyes, listening as all three of their loud footsteps drowned out all the other noises that she was planning on listening to, she really couldn't remember where the room was, but she could almost smell the pine of the wooden floors that they had earlier been in, and soon enough they all bursted into their sensei's resting room with relief on their faces. He's awake.

Naru had a huge dopey grin on her face, and she could tell, but she didn't care. She vaguely heard the old man make his way up the stairs as well, but her main attention was focused on her awakened sensei with starry cerulean blue eyes.

"Sensei! You're awake!" she laughed.

* * *

Kakashi had explained to them what was going on with the tracker nin's 'execution' of Zabuza, and he supplied that he still thinks that he's still alive, and was actually_ helping_ Zabuza. Of course, with Kakashi feeling a bit weak like he was, the only way to defeat them was to train. But, directly after that, a kid, Inari - Tazuna's grandson, had came in and exclaimed that no matter how much training they went through they wouldn't be able to defeat Gato.

Now, Naru was determined to get through this training without a hitch. She can do it, she's sure she can. Too bad she wasn't even sure what they were training. She stared intently at her sensei as he began prattling off before finally getting to his point.

"You're going to climb a tree."

"What the hell?" she muttered quietly. "We're going to climb trees, when we have an enemy practically waiting for us to fall on our asses as we fight?"

"As much as I hate to admit it Naruto," Sakura continued to call her by her infernal name, her nose getting pretty high as she spoke. Naruto tuned her out. "Might have a point. Why are we going to climb trees anyways?"

Sasuke just grunted his consent, as the three of them glared at the silver haired jounin that was lounging lazily against his silver crutches that was held properly beneath his armpits while he chuckled quietly.

"Without hands."

Sakura and Naru began to protest indignantly with exasperated looks on their faces, while Kakashi just stared at them amusedly before someone else spoke up.

"Hn..." Sasuke's glare intensified. "What do you mean?"

"You're going to mold your chakra. Like this," Kakashi held his hands in front of him in a chakra molding sign, before grasping his cruthes again, walking straight up the tree, before slowly coming to a stop while standing upside down on a low branch. "Well, you guys get the point."

"Whoa..." Naru's mouth fell half open.

"Of course, you all are going to need a running start," Kakashi pulled out three kunai from his kunai pouch and threw them in front of his crouching students. "Use these to mark where you last made it to overcome that mark, until you get to the top."

The three genin all had a mask hardened with determination as they grasped their kunai tightly in their hands, walking to their respective trees. They weren't getting in a fight with each other, but instead focusing on getting chakra to flow to their feet with the same hand sign that Kakashi had used, before all three opened their eyes and began with their training.

* * *

A few hours later, they discovered that Sakura had the best Chakra control, and she was released from training earlier than the others to go escort the bridge builder while Naruto and Sasuke were left to catch up. Kakashi himself, then left the area, knowing that it was going to take them a little longer to finish the training considering they both had unusually large amounts of chakra for genin.

Naruto stood facing her tree, irritatedly brushing her bangs out of her eyes as she tried to focus what was left of her chakra into her feet. The first time she had tried it, she put too little, and she ended up falling right on her back, but she learned her lesson pretty fairly soon after, and now she made it to the lowest tree branch - equal to where Sasuke had made it as well.

"Teme," she cut a long glare at the black-headed boy long enough to spit out an insult before turning away.

"Hn," _She's matching with me, she must have a lot of stamina to keep going like this_, he thought with just as much irritation that Naruto was fighting against. "What did Sakura tell you?" he asked reluctantly.

Naruto turned away from her tree with a few blinks before grinning foxily at him. "Why should I tell you?"

Sasuke glared in response, causing Naruto to giggle freely at his expense. She had to admit, she enjoyed pissing the great Uchiha off.

"She wouldn't tell me anything, actually," she sighed. "But, I remembered something from Iruka-sensei's class, and some of the scrolls I stole..."

His eyes widened at her in shock.

"I was borrowing without permission; I gave them back!" she calmed herself. "Anyways, the most I learned was not to concentrate on your enemy, but on your objective... in this case, the tree... We're getting too competitive," she smirked.

Sasuke immediately returned the smirk. "And what do you suggest, _genius_, that we call a truce for now?"

"That, _jerkface_, is exactly what I'm saying," out of no where she raised a white flag. "But, the first one to the top get's bragging rights! Let's go!"

Sasuke grunted, but turned back to his tree with even more determination than he had before. He was still willing to beat Naru to the top, but now he knew that he can't focus all of his attention on his opponent - this slip of a girl. Not this time, he grinned silently. Once he was finish calling upon the rest of his chakra, noticing that Naru was doing the same, both stopped feeding chakra to their feet, and began taking off for the trees.

Naru kept running once she got past the second branch, and she didn't even spare Sasuke a glance to see how far up he was. She was focusing on her own tree. Three branches up. Five branches up. That was her limit for now, she felt herself losing her grip, leaning forward, she scratched a mark with her kunai before falling backwards in a somersault, landing in another crouch.

This time she moved her curious gaze to see how far Sasuke had gotten and much to her ire she found that he had gotten just as high. She glared heatedly, getting ready to pump more chakra to her feet, as she turned to face her objective once more.

"Oh, it's on, arrogant bastard," she murmured.

* * *

**AN: It's flattering that people added this story to their favorites/alerts. But, I'm not even sure if I want to continue with this. This was just a result of a vicious plot bunnie that wouldn't dare leave me alone. This story is probably going to die soon. But, here's the fourth chapter anyways. **


	5. I am Haku

**Authoress' Note: **Thank you for reviewing. :)

**Side Note:** At this pace, her "ability" should appear in the next chapter, maybe. Though, really that's not what this story is about... aha. Onward!

**World: _Alternate Universe_**. _Canon_ situation, **AU** action and results.

**3rd POV, and staying that way throughout the rest of the story. **

* * *

**5. I'm Haku.**

They trained, and trained, and trained, but Kakashi and Sakura hadn't came back. Not that Naruto really cared for either of their presences while she trained, but she would have loved it if they had taken the Uchiha with them. Instead, he's riding her back - not literally, but he might as well be with how he kept matching her throughout every knock in the tree that she'd made.

It seemed horrible to her now that she couldn't seem to get higher or better than Sasuke, she didn't know how she felt about that.

She'd get a little higher, and then so would he. She was starting to think that this bet was a little futile. The only way she'll get to the top first is if she told him to give up - and he's just as stubborn as she is, so there's no way he's going to give up. She sighed.

"Let's take a break for a minute..." she stared at Sasuke's back as he flipped off his tree, landing before he swiftly turned to meet her exhausted blue gaze.

He raised an eyebrow. "Take a break?"

"I know _you're_ not going to give up..." she frowned. "Especially when _I'm_ still trying, so let's at least take a break... We could end up going into chakra exhaustion, and we really don't need that."

Sasuke stared blankly at her, but he knew that she was right, so he silently walked over to a tree that was closer to hers and slid down to sit beside her. Of course, he noticed her cringing when he did sit, but the only response he gave her was a mocking smirk. "I can't believe that you were trying to get me to quit, anyhow."

"Well, believe it," she scratched the back of her head and laid back against her tree. "One of these days, I'm going to kick your ass, and then I'll be better than you."

_At least she didn't yell it this time_, Sasuke mused. _She must be too tired to... _he rolled his eyes. "Right..."

* * *

The body that was lacking much blood of Zabuza's was laying on the cot as he regained stability over his body, and his breathing came back to him in a rush. The boy that had put him down stood beside the bedside, wary of the corrupt businessman that was standing on the far side of the room. He didn't know what the man wanted, but if he, Gato, tried anything... He wouldn't hesitate to put him down himself. But, that wasn't what his sensei had ordered him to do.

Unfortunately, he has to help kill the bridge builder so that the businessman can continue his job to take over the Land of Waves. _Sick_, he thought to himself, eyeing the elder man through the eyeslots of his tracker mask. _But, nothing I can do... Zabuza really needs that money... I too shall let this slide, Zabu-nii. _

Zabuza began to come to with a lowly groan as he reached up to pull the two senbon that were lodged in his neck out with a harsh jerk. His crazy eyes locked on the boy in the mask with frustration etched clearly on his face. "You were too brutal, Haku."

"How so?" he replied, smiling even though his caretaker couldn't even see it.

"... You _know_," Zabuza grumbled. "Any particular reason why you've shut down my system?"

"If I hadn't, Kakashi would have killed you," Haku replied easily, noticing as Gato started making his way across the room to him and Zabuza.

Though, Zabuza, being a little haze, hadn't noticed the disturbing feeling that the man was putting off and Haku instantly took a defensive stance beside the bed to defend him.

"How unfortunate," the man spoke, eyeing Zabuza closely. "You had the chance to take them down, and yet; they got away. What kind of rogue ninja are you? You trying to play tag? Or, in this case... _Hide and Go Seek_? If you don't get the job done, I will have reinforcements, and you can just forget about the money that you were expecting."

Haku tensed as the man continued to walk closer to them but soon he stopped. "We will get the job done, Gato-san. But, I suggest from now on we be given a little more time."

"More time?" Zabuza muttered to himself, he knew with any more time given, he'll have the Copy Ninja and his brats defeated within that time. But, Gato seemed to scoff.

"More time..." he questioned, meeting the older ninja's dark gaze with his own, getting ready to move and hit the prone form of Zabuza even as Zabuza glared him down since he couldn't do much else in this state. "You've had your chance, give me one good reason why I shouldn't fire you now?"

His fist was high and aimed for the disabled ninja's body, and when he swung he wasn't quite expecting Haku to catch his fist easily. "That's enough; I think you should leave now."

Haku stood, glaring behind his mask to Gato's shocked face as the man took on an evil leer. "You... Y-you bastard!" his free hand reached up and swung for Haku's face, but this time, instead of catching his fist; the arm that Haku had in his hands let out a sickening crack as the man screamed out in protest as Haku broke his arm.

"I _said_, that is enough."

Zabuza smirked behind the stark white facial wrappings of his mask, as he started to rest. Kami knew he needed it, and he didn't need to worry about some old geezer trying to make an attempt on his life. _I taught you well, Haku_. The extra time that they needed was no where near another day; it was more like an extra week. There's no way he's going to be recovered by the next day after taking the beating from Kakashi, and then having his body shut down... of course, he's going to come back, and he'll be better than he was before... His first goal is to put down the blonde gaki that had caught him off guard in the first place when he had the situation all in control.

* * *

It was the evening, a few stars were showing as they lit up the sky, and Sasuke and Naruto had finally decided to head back to the house after training a little more to at least fill up on food before they decided to try again the next day. The talk between the two of them was a colorful one... Even though Naru had to lean on Sasuke's shoulders for support so that he could drag her back, she still kept egging him on that she would beat him as she murmured a string of curses that left her lips. "Oi! Can't you walk any faster?"

"I could if I wasn't hauling your fat ass," Sasuke retorted, tightening his arm around her waist as it was already almost wrapped all the way around her, conveniently disproving his point. But, none the less, Naru was offended.

"I'm not fat!" she hissed in his ear. "I'm voluptuous!"

"The only thing voluptuous on you is your—" he cut himself off before he could even finish that sentence. He really didn't want to explain how he came to be looking _there_, of all places. Just the thought of explaining it made his cheeks burn as he felt himself blushing.

"My nothing!" Naru finished. "I'm not fat!"

"Hn, whatever," Sasuke muttered.

They were almost through the forest and to Tazuna's house by now and he didn't want to hear her mouth any more than he needed to. Naruto must have thought the same, because she suddenly grew quiet, making Sasuke curious as he looked down to see her eyes closed and her breathing evened out. Completely wishful thinking on his part. A wish come sighed in relief.

"And she falls asleep. Probably exhausted from overusing her chakra...," he smirked to himself proudly. _I'm still standing!_ He moved his other arm to hold the undersides of her knees before he walked on, carrying his not-so-useless teammate in his arms, bridal style as they made it to the door. _She'd kill me if she found out I carried her back here_... he frowned.

The door swung open to reveal a slightly worried Sakura, and a smiling Kakashi as the lights from the inside of Tazuna's home poured out onto the porched to where he was carrying his sleeping teammate. The slightly worried Sakura seemed to have adopted a look of disappointment at seeing Sasuke holding the sleeping Naruto though... Sasuke caught it, but he ignored the question in her eyes.

"Welcome back," Kakashi grinned at the two, before a calm seriousness took over in his eyes. He leaned over to take Naru from Sasuke's arms, knowing that the boy wouldn't be able to carry her much further if he didn't. He checked her over to make sure she wasn't injured before a look of relief passed his features as he spoke to his kids. "She passed out, ne?"

"Funny how she thinks she can go on long without a break," Sakura frowned, feeling a little jaded. "She probably has a mild case of chakra exhaustion from overworking herself like that."

Sasuke frowned, walking past Kakashi and Sakura and heading into the house. "She did take a break, she just got tired on our way here."

Just as he was about to make his way to the stairs to go to sleep himself, Sakura stopped him with a hopeful look on her face as she talked. "Sasuke, you and Naru must be starved... Tsunami-san made us food while you were both out... Aren't you hungry? You should probably eat before you-"

Sasuke stopped, but didn't turn to her as he answered. "Not right now," he sighed.

—

Naru awoke in hers and Sakura's room, the sun was just barely reaching the horizon. She turned over to see that Sakura was on the other side of the room, lying on her pallet fast asleep, and she threw the covers off of herself looking around for her shoes, since she was still dressed in her work uniform. Once she found them, she slid them onto her feet swiftly and bounded for the window. _It can't be more than a few kilometers off the ground_, she thought as she sat on the ledge. _Just don't look down! _

And she let herself soar through the air, falling to the ground, and ready to catch herself and land safely on the ground. Though, much to her suprise, someone caught her the second she landed, their large hands clamped around the tops of her arms, and she found herself face-to-face with her sensei. She frowned as she tried to calm her erratically beating heart.

"Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing out here?" she questioned him, shrugging his arms off her.

"Ah, but I could ask you the same thing," he murmured a little quieter than she did. "What do you think you're doing, Naru-chan?"

"I was going to train," she answered truthfully.

"Now?"

"If Sasuke beats me, then I'll never beat him at anything!" she glared. "Besides, we kind of bet on bragging rights for whoever gets to the top first."

"Maa... but wouldn't this be cheating then?" he asked, amusedly as her frown deepened.

"There are no rules," she whispered, getting ready to walk to the field where they were training the other day. She didn't feel Kakashi tried to stop her and her frown faded as a smile took its place and she met her sensei's lone visible eye which was showing his pride in his students, making her feel better than she had ever since she'd graduated the academy.

"Just be careful, Naru," Kakashi told her seriously. "And _actually_ take breaks. We can't afford to have you go into chakra exhaustion this early in our battle." Naru nodded her affirmitive before she saluted him half-seriously.

"Yes sir!" she snickered as she took off into the forest without looking back for anything, knowing that her sensei was still watching her.

—

Naru stood in front of her tree with a determined look on her face as her blue eyes shone brightly with fire. _I need this_, she thought. _Believe it_... She pulled out one of the kunai in her pouch that was being wielded with the particular task of marking her spot. She _is_ going to get to the top this time! She gasped out a small gust of breath after moving a bit too swiftly, and she remembered that last night she was practically torn apart from training almost nonstop, and she really was near chakra exhaustion.

_If I push myself too far this time, I'll probably end up passing out here in the forest_.

She gathered the amount of chakra needed and she raced against herself and the wind, getting higher and higher as she made it to the spot that she and Sasuke had stopped at last._ I'm getting it_, she grinned.

* * *

As the sun seemed to get higher in the sky, Haku made his way through the forest, picking up every herb that he could to help Zabuza get the nutrients he needed to build his strength again. He wasn't wearing his battle uniform for precautious reasons alone, and instead he wore a light pink yukata with his black hair flowing around the tops of his shoulders, his face free of the white tracker nin mask that he wore before.

Even as he walked he felt his spirits rise as the Spring air warmed him. Now he was walking under the sun toward a small field of herbs that he may or may not need, no one could ever be too sure with how many injuries one tends to get if they were a shinobi. They were herbs for a specific healing technique that he was specializing in, and they were at least a few meters away from where he was, in the distance.

But that didn't seem to matter to him as he walked toward the small patch of greenery, almost stopping for nothing, but something bright caught his eye swiftly as he overlooked it a little too fast.

His eyes quickly moved to it, knowing that it wasn't moving, and his gaze dropped upon a _very_ familiar girl nearly a few short years younger than him—the blonde one from before, he realized, and he sucked in a breath. ..._Beautiful when she's sleeping_, was an errant thought that crossed his mind for a split second, and he leaned over her body preparing himself to snap her neck and be rid of her so that his and Zabuza's job shall be done with, but instead he ended up placing his hand on her shoulder, shaking her lightly.

"You're going to catch a cold if you sleep out here," he murmued lightly.

It took a few more shakes, and the girl came to blinking the utmost brightest blue eyes he's ever saw to stare into his brighting grays. She broke their staring contest to look around the forest for a little while before she swiftly sat up, brushing her bangs out of her face and sleep out of her eyes. "Kuso... I passed out again," she began to mutter a handful of curses, and Haku blinked his surprise.

"Hey, hey! Onee-san," she questioned desperately, disregarding the fact that her bright orange jacket was slung limply over her shoulders revealing her light spaghetti strap tank, and her disheveled look. "What time is it?"

Haku stared inquiringly at te girl before him, retreating his arm as he looked her over. _How long was she sleep out here?_, he thought. "It's just a little after sunrise."

She didn't speak for a while as she seemed to be tossing that fact over in her mind, and Haku started to become curious as to why she was out here in the first place. Her eyes started to lose the sleepy haze and the flush seemed to leave her cheeks as she frowned. "That means I didn't get to the top..."

"Ano," Haku caught her attention again, speaking softly to the younger teen. He caught glimpse of her hitai-ate that was laying on the grass in front of her as it caught the sun's light. "Why were you out here...? If you don't mind my asking?"

The girl seemed to be surprised for a moment, her eyes seeming to get even brighter as she grinned foxily at him. "I'm training!"

"Why?" he asked softly, sitting in front of her on his knees.

Her face took on a confused expression as she tilted her head to the side questioning him. "What do you mean?"

"Are you training for a special person?" he asked, a small smile moving his lips in a proud way as he thought of Zabuza, and why he was fighting in the first place. "It seems to me that most people truly become strong when they want to fight for a precious person."

...

Naru took that question into consideration as she stared into the boy's eyes, noticing that they seemed to get brighter. She thought of why she wanted to get stronger—so people would notice her. To become the Hokage, so that people look up to her and entrust her with their problems. She wanted to be someone that everyone went to for help. She took a deep breath, sighing as she finally answered him.

"I guess so," she smiled, thinking of the people that made her want to get strong; Iruka, the Third, now her teammates as well. She eyed the boy once again, before a huge grin came over her face, and she through out a 'lucky' sign. "I'm Naru Uzumaki! Who're you?"

"Haku," the boy's smile grew a little before it faded.

...

_Your enemy_, he finished mentally_. _


	6. Where's the Reset Button?

**Previously; **

"_Are you training for a special person?" he asked her as he got a glassy look in his eyes. "It seems to me that most people truly become strong when they want to fight for a precious person."_

–

_**After he told her a vague story about his precious person, he got up and walked away but before he was completely gone, he paused and called over his shoulder, "By the way," he sighed. "I'm a boy." **_

_**And the moment he was out of her presence Naru's face gone beat red like a tomato as she thought, **_**Man, he's a boy? He's prettier than me!**

* * *

**6. Where's the Reset Button When You Need It?**

It was later that day after Haku had left, and Sasuke had came to check up on her that both she and Sasuke were back to training again. Though Zabuza and his tracker ninja should be ready to fight by tomorrow since it was almost a week that they've been in the Land of the Waves, Naruto and Sasuke had a different reason for training. It was to see who would get to the top first.

Naruto made it most of the way, but then again, so did Sasuke.

And, now as they trained, Kakashi and Sakura had made their appearance to watch their progress as they stood on the ground below. They looked around the training area in shock while trying to find the duo, but they couldn't see them anywhere. Well, at least not until a brandished silver kunai flew down from a tree branch somewhere a few yards above to the ground in front of them, dragging their attention to see the thrower laughing merrily, standing on her branch with a victorious look on her face.

"Haha!" she laughed stepping around the branch that she was on, feeling herself teeter to one side. "I did it, sensei! That lesson was a piece of cake! Believe it!"

Suddenly, she gasped though as she finally lost her footing from losing balance just seconds earlier and she began to fall—but she didn't scream—Sakura did that for her. But before she fell completely to the ground, she caught herself on the underside of her branch, holding out a lucky sign to her teammate and sensei. "Ahaha! Fooled you!"

"Naruto, you idiot!" Sakura screamed as Kakashi sweatdropped.

This time, she felt her chakra stop feeding her feet. Feeling a new sense of danger, she gasped as her grip was lost and she began to plummet toward the earth. "Uh oh…"

Suddenly a blue flash leapt from tree bark to tree bark from one tree to the other before it landed on Naru's tree and caught her by her foot, keeping the both of them from falling. "Dobe," was Sasuke's voice speaking down to her.

"Sasuke!" Sakura started to cheer before she began to scold Naruto along with her other teammate. "Naruto you shouldn't show off like that! You scared us!"

"Uh," Kakashi began, noticing that Sasuke wasn't going to be able to hold the both of them for much longer. "You might want to—"

Soon enough, Sasuke's chakra seemed to run low as the both of them went tumbling to the ground below in a heap with Sasuke on top.

Both the girls felt their faces heating up as Kakashi chuckled softly to himself at their embarrassment. Sakura's disappointment felt rooted again and she frowned with a dark look on her face at the blonde girl across the forest from her. But she didn't need to say anything, because apparently Naruto was on it.

"Get off of me!" Naruto screamed. "If you would have hung on to your tree I wouldn't be in this situation!"

Sakura flinched.

"If you would have hung on to your own branch, then neither would I!" Sasuke snapped back, before adding a little more halfheartedly. "Besides, the only reason I fell was because you're fat."

Kakashi started to walk away as an all new argument broke out, and Sakura couldn't help but grin more victoriously than Naru had as she walked away with him. _Cha! Sasuke thinks Naruto's fat!_, she cackled in her mind.

"Just be sure to come back to the house when you're finished, ne?" Kakashi called over his shoulder, vouching not to get caught in the heat of a battle-of-the-sexes argument between his kids. _In all honesty, Naru isn't fat in any way_, he thought amusedly.

–

They could see everything from here. Naru could at least, and as she looked over she saw that Sasuke could too. A serene smile washed off the worry that was placed in her facial expression as she saw the bridge and waters from where she was, seeing the tops of the trees as well. They finally made it to the top. _But, neither one of us won_, she thought. _Does that mean we're equal? _

Naruto was pulled out of her admiring of the view as Sasuke called to her from his tree. "Let's go back, Naruto."

Naru nodded and began to lower herself to the nearest branch, seeing Sasuke do the same. She's tired, and hungry. The second she gets back to Tsunami's house, she's going to have herself a lovely meal, and probably knock out afterwards.

…

They were all at the table; their food already had been made for them and set out on plates whenever Naruto and Sasuke made their cameo. The table was quiet for a long while as they all ate, Naruto trying to beat Sasuke at eating, Sasuke being oblivious to her challenge, and Sakura didn't even bother to eat—to avoid being called fat by her crush, and Kakashi read his book while the residents of the house quietly conversed between themselves in a conversation that Cell 7 wasn't invited into.

"So, how's your training coming along?" Tsunami finally closed the conversation that she was having with her father, and she noticed the way her son got a dark look on his face as she asked them that question.

"It's going great," Naruto answered as she grinned around her onari. "Sasuke and I made it to the top of our trees!"

Kakashi seemed to hum at that announcement before he asked offhandedly, "Which one of you got to the top first?"

Both Naruto and Sasuke answered, though Naruto a little more boisterously. "I did!"

She glared at Sasuke, and he glared back, a clear offset of bad temper going between them, making the room's temperature drop a few degrees. "Well, neither of us did. He got to the top the same time I did," she frowned. "I'm still going to beat you, asshole." she told him a little more quietly—more of an inside voice—it was still loud enough to hear, scowling across the table at him.

Sasuke smirked but continued to eat as he ignored her.

"But, soon enough we'll have that Gato put down!" Naruto swallowed her food before drinking a glass of her water. "And I'll be the hero of the day!"

Naru felt a glare on her as she finished talking, and she already knew it was Inari; he wasn't exactly quiet about his opinion on the matter, but so far he hadn't said anything more to her about what was on his mind ever since they argued about heroes. But, she was just waiting for him to say something first, just so it wouldn't look like she was a jerk. She frowned.

…

As she made her pallet for that night she felt a twisty feeling in her gut, making her feel all the more apprehensive than ever… She didn't know what was going to happen tomorrow, but she sure hoped that that feeling in her gut had nothing to do with it...

* * *

She _couldn't_ believe it.

They were in the middle of the fight they'd all been preparing for, because yesterday had gone so well. Well first it had originally started out that her sensei and teammates had left her because she was suffering from Chakra exhaustion, so she was left to sleep in.

But, the moment she woke up was a bit too late, and when she tried to leave, she caught a sight of a skewered boar in the forest, leading her back to the house to see Tsunami and her son being attacked by two men. She easily took care of it, though. She told Inari that if he'd wanted to believe in heroes, he's going to have to do the rest of the job so that she could help out with her teammates.

That lead her to where she was now, holding Sasuke's dead body covered in senbon as a few of her tears escaped her eyes.

_Mistake, mistake, mistake_, flew by the deepest crevices of her mind, but she wasn't listening to it. She murmured to her dead teammate, remembering the last few seconds of his life. "I hated you too, Sasuke," she sobbed.

"Is this the first time you've lost a comrade?" she heard her enemy question her.

The tracker shinobi seemed to stop where he was, hanging out of his odd ice mirror things as he stared her down. He hesitated to continue, even as the girl was vulnerable, and he seemed to want to wait until she was at least paying attention.

Naru set Sasuke down, more tears coming down her face as more voices whispered in her subconscious, _Fix it… Fix… It… Mistake_, she frowned. "He had a dream…" she paused, still looking at his body. "To become someone to his father… It's all my fault he's dead now… Sakura-chan is going to hate my guts."

She felt her chakra twisting her stomach, her anger growing for this boy was probably the reason for it. Her anger was irrational, she knew; but he was her teammate, and this was their first mission out of the village. The feeling of anger didn't bother try to cease and leave her, and instead made a move of its own to cloak her body as she finally looked up to the boy with red irises that had black cat slits for pupils, and she could almost smell the boy's fear.

"_**I'm going to kill you,**_" she growled out in a voice that wasn't entirely hers. And she lunged, aiming to attack the evil bastard that decided to try to kill her, knowing that her teammate would protect her.

"This girl…" she heard the boy murmur in a voice that was vaguely familiar to her—it didn't matter, she began to run after the boy, shattering the crystal ice mirror wall's that made up the dome wherever her feet touched. Her anger, and this chakra was enough to kill by touch, let alone by delivering a final blow—and she was planning on using her anger while she still had it.

…

Haku was surprised when she stopped after she punched his mask, breaking it away from her face. But, he was even more shocked whenever he saw the near broken look on her face as she realized who he was. This made him feel cold, which not even the ice from his mirrors could do.

"You had the chance to kill me, but you didn't," Haku told her coldly.

–

Naru was taken aback by his tone of voice, but she couldn't say anything to what he said. She isn't a killer. _That's him_, she thought. But that wasn't what kept her from killing him—this one time she was planning on going against what she believed in to avenge her newfound best friend…but, his killer's face got in the way.

Him; the one that taught her to cherish the people close to her—to fight _for_ them instead of fighting _with_ them.

"I—You… you're," she tried to finish what she was saying, fresh tears falling from her dimmed cerulean eyes as she looked back toward the broken ice mirrors to her fallen comrade. "Haku… you killed him. You killed one of my precious people."

He didn't answer for the longest before he spoke again. "Then, kill me; like you planned to."

Naruto thought it over, she did owe it to Sasuke to avenge his death… But… Why would he let her kill him?

"Naru, please?" his voice was desperate now. "I am no use of Zabuza-nii, now… I failed him… Kill me, now!"

She felt the anger coming back to her, and she brandished her kunai, holding it out in front of her as she prepared to launch for the boy who killed her teammate—it was easier referring to him that way, because this way she won't have to think twice about it, and just as she was close enough to slit his throat, he caught her flying hand that gripped the kunai and he held it still.

"Nevermind, Naru-chan," Haku spoke emptily. "I have one more chance to assist Zabuza." And then he was gone, quicker than Naru's eyes could catch.

–

The rest of the day went down from there, flying by Naru's eyes in a giant flash before she felt her mind whispering to her again a little louder than they had that first time—_"**Fix it**… This was a mistake."_

And she blacked out.

* * *

Naruto awoke with a start, hearing her sensei and Tsunami's voice lift from the room below. "What happened?" she asked out loud to herself, looking around frantically. "Did we win?"

She couldn't find any clue that would lead her to thinking that they won, but she looked around a little more anyways, before she decided to try and listen in on the conversation that was happening below.

…

Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were downstairs speaking with Tsunami, knowing that Naru was still sleeping upstairs, and they relayed what was going on to the woman so that she would know what to expect. Kakashi and his teammates that were good to go were going to escort the bridge builder to his bridge, and they were going to leave Naru there so she could get some rest.

"What if she wakes up?"

"Then you can send her down a little after you make sure she's feeling alright," Kakashi answered.

Sasuke and Sakura nodded, both feeling a little worry for their teammate since she still hadn't woken up, to their knowledge at least.

…

As she heard the conversation down below her she groaned. "This can't be another one of those days!" _I was sent back_… she thought pulling herself off of her pallet, and pulling on her skirt which she must have taken off yesterday… except it wasn't _her_ yesterday that she was thinking of. It was _theirs_.

_I have a chance to save Sasuke_… she thought. But, she kept quiet, knowing that he wasn't going to die this time, because she wasn't going to go inside the mirrors. Actually she was going to arrive a little more differently than she did the last time.

"_Naruto Uzumaki is here!"_ she remembered herself saying, calling all the attention to move to her, and in the process caused Zabuza to send three shuriken at her.

"Much more differently," she murmured.

Soon she heard the door shut, and she moved to the window to see the three walking away. _I need to hunt down those guys,_ she thought. _Since the day was reset… They should be coming here, too. _That stopped her in her thoughts, though._ But, if they're coming… then I should probably stay here, and tell Inari what I told him yesterday. It's settled. I'll wait. _

She finished getting dressed as she walked down the stairs. She could easily smell the food that Tsunami had began to cook, and she couldn't help the growl that her stomach put off, and she realized that it felt like she hadn't eaten in two days. She was lucky for the metabolism that she had…

As she stopped at the threshold, she was met with Tsunami's smiling face before importance flashed behind her eyes and her smile faded. "Naru-chan, you should still be in bed." She frowned. "Your sensei said you were fighting off chakra depletion."

Naru blinked, but she replied with the strongest effort of energy that she could to prove that she was fine. "Oh, I was, but I smelt your delicious cooking, and… I guess the aroma fought off the rest of my battle," she finished.

"Hm… I see," Tsunami murmured, turning for the kitchen before she called over her shoulder. "Well, your sensei took your teammates to the bridge with my father. They were thinking about finishing the bridge today."

Naru nodded, feeling more confident that the woman had just confirmed what she was thinking earlier, that the day had certainly been reset. And a smile grew on her face as she asked her a different question than she did the last time. "Ano… where's Inari-kun?"

The moment that she asked that question there was a light thumping noise coming from slightly above her as the kid came down the stairs that she just had. He stopped where he was to stare questioningly at the older girl, "Your sensei already left."

"Ah…" she scratched the back of her head. "I know…"

_How long before they come?_, she thought. _I could at least send a shadow clone out to search for the boa, then have her come back when she finds it… because then, they'll already be on their way, and I'll need my chakra just in case_… she began to make the needed hand-sign as she molded an appropriate use of chakra before she felt her mind separate the chakra supply into two equal halves; one supply staying in her body, and the other going to her clone. _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! _

_–_

Outside, a Naruto just as real as she was appeared on the other side of wall the original stood by, in the exact same black shorts, and orange and black jacket, with the same two pigtails pulled high above her head.

_Ready boss_, she felt herself think, even though it wasn't necessarily in her own mind—she could see the dock and the forest as she sent her clone to scout out for the enemy. And she nodded in response to her own thought, wondering why she could see what was going on in two different places…

Tsunami was back in the kitchen to tend to the food she was cooking and Inari was playing in the living room near the kitchen. Whatever food Tsunami had done had drawn Naru to the plate full and she immediately felt her mouth watering… "They shouldn't be here for a while," she thought. "I can spare at least to eat before I fight…"

Tsunami didn't show any sign of hearing the girl as she finished up making a pot of ramen in courtesy of the young girl after having learned that it was her favorite dish a few nights ago. When she turned back around, she noticed that Naru had lowered herself to the table and was sitting with an eager look on her face as she gave the woman the pitiful animal look, begging to be fed.

"I can see that you're hungry," the woman laughed, setting a fresh bowl in front of her. And she watched in astonishment as Naru practically inhaled the contents.

–

Clone Naruto leapt from branch to branch, trying to retrace her steps from _her_ yesterday. Once she found the forest that she remembered going through she could feel her gut twisting as it had yesterday, and she grinned. "That means I'm on the right path!"

She slowed herself to a walk, and dropped from the tree branch that she was in, coming across a long uneven, and messy line of needles leading to a bunch of spouted blood where she was expecting the pig-turned-pincushion to be laying, and she found it with a frown on her face. "Done, and done," she thought out loud. "They should be on their way now. I should tell boss."

Just as she turned around, she felt herself releasing, going back into nothingness, and the chakra that she hadn't even bothered using going back to its original owner.

–

Naruto felt the information come back to her and she grinned; everything was going to plan. Inari was now sitting at the table with her, and Tsunami had went back to the back room to do something or other, and Naruto planned to defeat the men the same way she had before, but she kind of wanted to get it done quicker.

"Inari-kun," she asked gently.

Inari glared at her. "What do you want?"

"I need you to listen to me, and listen carefully," she began, catching his gaze to make sure that he was listening. Once he nodded, she continued. "There are going to be two men about to break in here…"

Inari gasped, but Naru kept going, undeterred.

"Your mom is probably going to scream, but don't worry. I'm on it," she smiled softly. "The men aren't going to touch your mother, understand? But, I need you to leave; take matters into your own hands. You yourself said that heroes don't exist, right?"

Inari stared disbelievingly at the girl, but she kept going.

"Well, I'm telling you that they do exist. Go, take matters into your own hands. You need to help protect your grandfather. Something bad is going to happen down at the bridge, but not if we can help it. Do you understand?"

He didn't want to believe her, but he nodded anyways. She was a ninja… and she trained for these kinds of things, right?

"Do what you need to, but get out of here; I don't want you to get hurt," she told him. And she watched as he slowly began to get himself up from his seat.

"I won't let you down, Naru-nee-chan!" Inari saluted her, before he left.

Naru smiled.

_I hope you won't_, she thought as she began to set about with the next part of her plan.

* * *

**Authoress Note: **Thanks for reviewing, new reviewers. (: Hope you enjoyed this, I tried not to rush it, but you know how that works…

Yes, this is still **Haku/Naru** pairing, so, he's going to have to live for that to happen—that was another reason why I waited for her ability to be used…


	7. Déjà Vu

**AN: Let's see if anyone can point out some foreshadowing... lol. :) **

* * *

**Chapter 7: Déjà Vu? **

The thugs from before had eventually showed up and Naru was already on the go before they could even find Tsunami, luckily she had made sure that she was upstairs in her room this time around, so that she could get her job done more quickly than before.

Right now, the two men wearing clothes that Naru didn't even find important enough to profile were tied up and knocked out, thanks to her and her amazing clone making, plus her transformation and substitution jutsu, just like before.

Just as she was about to turn away, she double checked to make sure that they wouldn't try anything, knowing that Tsunami wouldn't be here if they did since she told her to go look for her son. Feeling reassured after realizing that fact, she turned and headed straight for the bridge.

This time she'll do it right!

_Believe it!_

* * *

Haku and Zabuza stared at their opponents and the Bridge builder that was set behind them as they stood in between them and Gato's target. Apparently, according to the copy ninja, they shouldn't underestimate the genin that he was babysitting. Haku could tell that Zabuza was rolling his eyes even as he fought the now current Uchiha heir; his speed was still too much for the boy, much to the Uchiha's astonishment.

"This—is nothing, just back down," Haku told the boy as his senbon came into contact with the kunai that the boy wielded.

"Why would we do that?" the boy scowled.

"Because, for one," Haku replied, aiming for an attack in his shoulder, stabbing right through the fleshy tissue easily, though his other arm was fending off the boy's hand that was gripping his kunai. "You only have use of one arm," the second point that he had was that the ponds around them were at his usage. The Uchiha—_Sasuke_, he thought, correcting himself—watched as the puddles formed themselves into perfectly usable senbon. "Second, you're at a huge disadvantage; we're surrounded by water."

…

Sasuke grunted, the feeling of the senbon in his arm not quite convincing enough for him, and he immediately fell back. _What kind of jutsu is this? It's a water one, for sure, but..._, he thought, glancing around him, noticing that Sakura and Kakashi were back with the bridge builder assuming the formation to protect him. It was all up to him to fight this bastard. _So be it_, he smirked. _I just wish I had my Sharingan to back me up_…

"Heh," Sasuke answered, pulling the senbon out of his shoulder, tossing it to the side as he readied his kunai again. "That doesn't matter."

* * *

Naru kept thinking to herself, she wasn't sure when the ice mirrors were brought up, but she did know that she must have arrived soon after the first time this happened. She wasn't sure what she was going to do, besides the key part to her entire rescue mission—_STAY ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE MIRRORS! _And, besides, last time Sasuke mentioned something about attacking from the outside, anyways… but she wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that… last time her shadow clones helped… but she wasn't sure if they'd work from the outside, would they?

She kept running, she was almost to the edge of the bridge, and from the distance she could see mist surrounding them all. _I can't do anything the same like last time_, she thought. _No announcing my arrival_…

Inside her, she felt that same animalistic anger manifesting in her from before as she remembered Sasuke dying because of her, and she fought hard to control it, but she could feel herself slipping. _But, I hardly ever get angry… I..._, she tried to calm herself down, forcing the image of Sasuke lying dead in her arms out of her mind. _It didn't happen yet, this time_ _and it won't happen_. And she won't let it happen.

Successfully feeling the red ebb away from her vision she sighed in relief, only hoping that she was right as she approached the group as quietly as she could.

She spotted Zabuza's form with his big sword—he was a few feet away from Kakashi, Sakura, and Tazuna like he was the last time, and it looked as if they were about to go off into battle, and as much as she would have loved to see that, she leapt onto the railing of the bridge, using their training from before to keep herself grounded as she ran near the ice dome of crystal mirrors that she saw standing as soon as she spotted it.

From the looks of it, it took her the exact same time as last time to get here, as well; _Excellent_.

* * *

Haku stared behind his mask as all his reflections mirrored his actions, all holding a senbon and ready to fire at the boy who tried to figure it out. It won't work, it's futile, Haku thought blankly as he vaguely wondered where the blonde girl was; was this why she was training? Surprisingly he found himself mildly disappointed that she couldn't be here, it would have been much more interesting had he fought her instead.

He watched as the boy slowly pulled himself into a shaky stance, a bunch of lacerations from the rain of senbon showing easily on his pale skin, and Haku felt the need to lessen his attacks on the boy—it really wasn't his intention to kill anyone unnecessarily today, but he will if he has to, and this boy is stubbornly getting in his way. They just need the bridge builder, and then they would be done here.

"Trying to fight me is futile," he began to lecture. "In my eyes, you're moving in slow motion; as I have said before. I'm moving as fast as the speed of light can project me to my mirrors."

…

Sasuke grunted. He'll still try, he needs to. If only Naru were here, he thought staring around the empty mirrors before his gaze landed on the single one.

The second Sasuke pulled himself up flashes of clones of 'Haku' seemed to appear into every single mirror, including the top ones, and each senbon in every one of their hands flashed as they prepared to slash and cut into his flesh. Then, he finally came up with a solution—but first he's going to have to dodge the oncoming senbon again.

* * *

Naru watched from the outside of the mirror, a few feet away from the icy walls, staring half in amazement, and half in worry. She had a kunai in her hand now as she watched Haku start sending senbon Sasuke's way. And she felt an overwhelming sense of relief as Sasuke finally began to dodge them, even though he was still getting torn up pretty badly.

_How are we both supposed to attack at the same time if Sasuke doesn't know I'm here?_, she asked herself… _I'd better send him a sign_—but that would mean Haku will know, too… _It's worth the shot, if I mess up know and I don't fix the mistake, at least I'll be able to try again_. _**Focus**_, she felt herself growing impatient though, and the kunai in her hand let out a light squeaking sound, only audible to her ears apparently as the fight on the inside of the make-shift arena raged on.

Thinking of a way to tell Sasuke that she was here, she flicked her wrist, causing her kunai to slide evenly through the crack in between two mirrors closest to her, but she still stayed out of Sasuke's sight. She watched as the kunai slid across the bridge's now slickened ground, skidding to a stop in front of her teammate, causing the onyx-eyed boy to look up in the direction it came from, only to see no one.

…

_Naru?_, he thought, picking the kunai up, and holding it tightly as he had already run out of kunai from aiming his own attacks at his opponent earlier on. _It must be her, but…? __That doesn't seem like the kind of thing she would do_…

…

Naruto grinned quietly before she finally decided to give him a booster hint. "Sasuke," she whispered, but he wasn't paying attention to her so she couldn't be sure if he heard her or not. "Sasuke!" she whisper-shouted a little louder than last time, trying not to really shout at him.

The boy in question turned to where her voice came from, but so did the boy who was fighting Sasuke. She saw Haku's form stop attacking Sasuke with senbon as he saw the new kunai in his hands, and she couldn't be sure if he had saw it slither its way in there, or if he just chose to ignore it until she revealed herself. But, eventually she found her answer as the masked boy met her burning gaze as her eyes narrowed. The cat's out of the bag now, she thought.

"Sasuke," she spoke clearly, moving so that her entire form was now in view for Sasuke, since apparently he was the one that couldn't see her out of the two in the mirror dome. "The only way to win is if we both attack at the same time."

Sasuke seemed shocked that she was even there, she realized as he stared wide-eyed at the girl. _Is there something on my face?_, she wondered. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

Sasuke didn't answer her question and instead began to glower at their enemy as a confident smirk found its way to her face. "Are you ready?"

* * *

Kakashi knew something was wrong the moment he told Zabuza, "Most people don't see it twice, so consider yourself lucky." He wasn't sure what it was that was wrong, but he felt as if he was in this situation before, even though he's only faced Zabuza one other time. He frowned as the mist got heavier, and Sakura, far behind him, started to get into formation, getting in front of the bridge builder as he went out after Zabuza in the cover of his mist jutsu.

Zabuza spoken, but he didn't hear a word that he said, but he was sure that he was boasting about getting an 'upper hand' as he would call it, and once Kakashi was sure that he was done speaking, he called out slyly into the mist to try to locate the rogue ninja. "How do you expect to fight me if you can't see for yourself? A lot of boasting for nothing, eh? ... Tell me, if you're so confident that you'll win, then why are you hiding?"

"Hiding?" Zabuza scoffed in answer. "No, Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye, your Sharingan shall prove useless when I use my mist; I am not hiding, I am _cloaking_! I will win this time!"

"Talk,_ talk_, _**talk**_," Kakashi, in his ready crouch, turned slightly in the direction of Zabuza's voice, his kunai in his hand reflecting slightly off the little sunlight it got. "Are you done bragging?"

He was definitely sure he said that before. _The only other time this had happened before was long ago_, he thought. _With Sensei's_... but there was no way for him to be sure, so he kept his suspicions to himself as he walked more toward Zabuza, kunai still ready for action. "Let's get this fight going, I have things to do."

* * *

Naru put her hands up in her signature hand seals, as she thought of the appropriate amount of clones that she would need. _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!_, soon enough there was a Naruto by every mirror, prepared for action. Once Naruto felt herself give the okay to... her selves?...she counted in her head and all of their eyes shot open, crouching before they leapt into the air with kunai's ready and glinting in the scarce amount of light that they had. "Sasuke, go!"

...

Outside of the dome of crystal ice mirrors, Sakura couldn't see but she heard a sure voice that she was hoping that she'd hear. _Naru really has grown up hasn't she?_, she frowned. She was just happy that Naruto will be able to help Sasuke since she was busy with the bridge builder. So, making up her mind, she took her clenched kunai in her hand that she was going to offer to Sasuke, and she took a step back toward the bridge builder. _Tazuna is my only worry right now_, she thought.

"Tazuna, get behind me," she ordered, feeling authority over the old man.

...

Sasuke flew through his own hand seals quickly, before his right hand flew to his mouth, leaving an opening as fire spewed out of his mouth. The bright infernos soon hit the mirrors and Sasuke began to turn, rotating, though shockingly he didn't see Haku anywhere in sight, in front or otherwise. But soon after wondering where he could have gone, he caught sight of a small amount of color as it bounced from mirror to mirror and there was scrapes and pounding on the outside of the mirrors.

He was losing his chakra to this, but it didn't matter. He flew through another bout of hand seals and began to blow out fire balls again, still turning around as he heard a cracking sound—he really hoped it was the mirrors and not someone's body...

...

Fifteen clones; that was how many she had made. All of them were still standing, thank Kami, as they all crashed hard into the mirrors, beating with their fists, though the real Naruto opted to use her kunai, which was making the scraping noises. She couldn't hear anything from the inside over the loud roar of the fire being used by Sasuke and she snidely grinned toward the mirrors, even though she was directing it to Haku.

"Haku!" one of her clones screamed, punching the ice it was in front of, and Naruto felt her breath shaking, and a small portion of her strength come back to her as that clone slowly dispelled after aiming a particularly hard hit to the mirror. But, fortunately she had cracked the mirror enough that one of the other clones could get to work on it, as they began to try to beat it as hard as the other had. _She must have been part of my determined and brash personality_, she idly thought, as she started chipping away at the ice.

She was down to fourteen clones now.

...

Haku heard the voice, the blonde girl's voice. She sounded angry and not at all cheerful like she was the day before. But that wasn't what made him listen, he saw her earlier before she planned her attack to his mirrors , and he already knew it was Naruto. But what stopped him in his tracks was that she remembered his name, and not only that; she somehow came to the conclusion that it was him behind this mask, from the top mirror, he looked in the direction of one of the Naruto clones, before the mirror he was in was beat again, and he was forced to relocate.

_This girl_, he thought.

Even as she kept aiming attacks for the mirrors, Haku finally made a resolve to fight her for the time being since he couldn't focus on them both at once while he was in his mirrors. "Alright, Naru-chan," he spoke softly, and around him he heard the incessant beating stop, along with the high-pitched scraping noise as well. "I shall fight you."

He saw the clones back away from the mirrors in shock, though the real one stayed put with her arms folded heavily underneath her chest as she glared at him. "Bring it."

* * *

Kakashi was sure of it now—well, _almost_ sure of it, as his kunai held off Zabuza's halbord. _But who could have done it? _Though, he really couldn't be sure of anything because all he had to go by was the vague sense of déjà vu that he was getting, and that wasn't much. But, he's had it before, and he was sure that it had to be someone in this battle. _They must have done it... after not liking the outcome of it, maybe? _

He couldn't bring himself to focus on his fight as he tried to think of what could happen here that anyone would want to change.

"What was it that you had said before, Kakashi?" Zabuza questioned as he yanked his halbord back, before hold it out in front of him, giving Kakashi a crazed look as he lifted his sword again, getting ready to take another swing. "Oh yes; you're _finished!_"

And Kakashi leapt back a few steps, calling the mist that Zabuza had to come back in full so that it could cloak him as he thought up a plan.

* * *

Haku stepped out of his mirrors, his eyes traveling to the heavy breathing boy on the inside of his mirrors before they went back to his new rival; meeting her burning bright blue eyes, never turning his gaze away as he stared her down. "I'm surprised you put together that it was me, Naru-chan."

"Well, what can I say?" Naruto looked back at her friend as well, before moving her gaze to Haku. "I'm a genius."

Haku heard the shifting of a body moving, and his eyes snapped to Sasuke as he sharply turned his head. Sasuke was crouched in a battle-ready formation, kunai clenched tightly in one hand as he leveled his glare to Haku. Haku's lips thinned behind his mask as his eyes got dimmer while he stared at the boy. "I haven't forgotten you for one minute, drop your kunai, or your friend gets hurt."

..

Naruto's gaze went back to Sasuke as well, seeing that he indeed was holding a kunai now, ready to throw it—_not at all like last time_, and she felt a huge rush of confusion before she warned Sasuke herself. "Sasuke, don't," she shook her head as her long blonde pigtails flew both ways. "Just stay where you are."

She saw Sasuke scowling at her, but she stood her ground, knowing that he would back off for now. Haku was her fight now, and she plans to take it into full stride to try to do everything that she can to prevent Sasuke from dying; and to get Gato away from this bridge.

"You're fighting _me_, leave him out of it," she told him coldly.

_"Naru, please? I am of no use to Zabuza-nii, now… I failed him… Kill me, now!" _a flash flew by her eyes, showing her the scene from the yesterday that she remembered, but she shook off how desperate he sounded. _He killed Sasuke_, _so I will kill him_. It doesn't matter how... nicely they got along the day before. Nothing will change her mind. _Besides, both he and Zabuza will die together. _

"And don't even think about going back to fight Sasuke, he tried, but failed. It's my turn."

...

Despite the situation he was in, a smile came onto his face as he lifted it to his mask, pulling it off gently and his light brown eyes met her bright blue easily. "Of course."

* * *

They were in an all out battle for ten minutes, she believed. Her kunai met with his senbon making a clatter noise, and she absent mindedly realized that the mist around them was lifting. She needs to keep Haku busy, she knows she does. So once her kunai met with his senbon once more as he fought off her blow. As they fought, she kept eye contact with him, not showing any sign of getting tired besides the small gasps that would leave her every now and then, and she was quite shocked to see that he was holding up pretty well too as far as she could tell.

"Quite the stamina you have," she heard him mutter as they pulled apart only for her to do a round house kick, aiming for his stomach-but he caught her foot easily causing her to twist and turn until she landed on the ground two feet away from him, a few lacerations going up her arms from when he ahd stabbed her earlier, but other than that she was practically unscathed.

She grunted as she came at him again, "I could say the same to you." _This is useless!... Just keep him _busy_!_

* * *

**End Note: **I know, I know. I'm dragging their fight out for too long... but I still don't have many reviews so I'm planning on dragging this story out until then... So, I'm sorry about that.


	8. The Wrong One

**Authoress Note:** Thanks for the reviews! :D

_**Enjoy! :)**_

**Warning: Character Death**

* * *

**8. The Wrong One**

Naru and Haku kept fighting, and Sasuke watched curiously from where he was, still in the ice mirrors. Did he really have to stay in there? And since when did she tell him what to do? He glared.

_I tried and failed_, he scoffed, but he still toyed with the kunai as he got ready to get rid of it, and if that meant leaping into Naru's fight, then so be it.

He wasn't going to miss a chance to redeem himself—and he most definitely won't let a comrade die for him, especially after that lesson Kakashi had tought them back in training grounds seven. Just what did Naru think she was doing, anyways?

_Why is she trying to play hero at a time like this?_, he thought. _She needs my help, and she knows it_.

...

Their weapons clashed again, but neither one of them backed down. Even though the two of them had different motives for keeping their fight going, they were both doing it for the same reasons—to keep _someone_ from dying. While Naru was trying to keep Haku busy so that Sasuke wouldn't die, Haku was busy fighting Naru so that no one would die. It was a twisted and confusing fight, but both of their wills were strong enough to hold on.

Haku huffed as he managed to knock the monstrous girl back from him once more with just his senbon and brute strength as she slid back on the concrete of the bridge. He had to get to Zabuza if he was in trouble—he didn't want him to die; actually he didn't want anyone there to die. Well, except for the bridge builder in a small sort of way, because _he_ was the reason they were put in this situation in the first place. But there was one thing that didn't sit well with him.

He couldn't understand why Gato didnt do his own dirty work for himself, but he did know that once the bridge builder is gone and they were paid in full, that he and Zabuza had plans to take Gato out as well. If everything goes according to plan.

But what if it didn't?

He began to consider putting Naru in the same state that he had put Zabuza in days ago, so that she would be out of his way, and he'd be able to do what he was going to. But, something told him not to. Well, whatever it is, it didn't exactly speak per se, but he just had a feeling that he shouldn't, so he ended up settling to just battle her as much as she pleased.

He wasn't needed yet, anyways.

...

Naru slid across the concrete once again as she was fought off by the male in front of her. _If we had met differently, we could have been friends_, she thought to herself, mourning the loss of something she never really had. _If I could start this week over, I'd tell them not to come. I'd lie and say that the Bridge Builder is already dead, and... and..._

She threw one of her kunai, aiming for Haku's waist, but he easily avoided it by dodging left, disappearing from her sight instantaneously... Just like her priorities had vanished at that moment. What was she supposed to do now? Sasuke made it through, since he was supposed to be dead nearly fifteen minutes ago—and she had a dawning suspicion that she wouldn't be able to kill Haku on her own as he reappeared in front of her with three senbon set in between each finger of both hands.

Her eyes went as wide as saucers. _What now? _

* * *

A clenching feeling tore through Kakashi's gut as his dogs held Zabuza in place, another feeling of deja vu coming over him even as an unfamiliar feeling of apprehension filled his alerts and emotions. The chidori glowing and screeching in his hand was still going loudly, and he was torn between seeing what was wrong with Sasuke, or ending it right here with Zabuza.

"Sasuke?" he questioned quietly. He couldn't be sure, but it was the same feeling he had so long ago whenever Obito had been crushed by that rock after saving Rin... "No, it can't be..." he murmured.

Zabuza seemed to be smirking behind his wraps as he stared emptily into Kakashi's confused eyes.

"What's the matter Kakashi? Can't do it?" he scoffed. "And to think they call you the great Copy Ninja Kakashi... Even if you killed me you won't be able to kill Haku. His kekkei genkai," he winced when one of the dogs clenched harder on his flesh, and Kakashi's confusion instantly left and was replaced with urgency. "Is undefeatable. You say that you place trust in that blonde brat, the Uzumaki? Well, I place my trust and life in his hands... He's a real _weapon_."

Kakashi felt realization dawn on him when Zabuza mentioned his other female student. Why didn't he realize it before? Could his worry be for Naru? He should turn the possiblity around a little more before assuming, but... maybe it really wasn't Sasuke after all... It would explain the Deja vu feeling he was getting. It only ever happened so long ago, with a certain brash red headed woman...

_Could she have Kushina's curse as well?_, he thought. "The _Blonde Brat_, as you call her, is someone special. I wouldn't doubt her... since I'm assuming she joined Sasuke and your subordinate's fight earlier on."

But, all the while, Kakashi couldn't tell if he wanted to worry or be relieved at the epiphany that he had made. _Naru _relives days_ too? _

* * *

Haku hesistated when he threw his senbon, and when he did get around to firing them, they went _around_ her instead of through her. Her eyes were still wide as she seemed as if she was frozen to the spot, Haku mentally scowled. It wasn't like he was going to actually kill her, but why couldn't he just put her down, just for the time being? There was just something different and offputting about this girl that he couldn't place. And, he wasn't sure why he was welcoming the change so suddenly. Maybe he was getting too soft.

"Naru," Haku murmured. "What are you?"

Naru seemed to snap out of her stunned state, just now noticing that she wasn't dead from the senbon that Haku had just thrown and she met his eyes with irritated blues. "Some call me a demon... but I'm just a girl. A homosapien female. If you don't know what that is, I'm human; and you are...?" she snapped.

Haku had long since lowered the senbon that he had and he stood where he was, noticing that the fog was starting to lift. "That's not what I meant."

"Explain," even as she said that, her current kunai was squeaking from the tight grip she held it in as she glared at him.

Haku curiously let his mind wander as he stared at her. Who else would have been offended if someone asked them what they are? He had been, and he should have understood, but he couldn't see anything beyond extraordinary about the girl besides her drive to her heart with only having a conversation with him once, sharing her dream. But his lips thinned into a tight line as he stared. "I meant what is so _different_ about you that keeps me from killing you now? Why haven't you made an honest attempt to _kill me_? Why do you smile when you've obviously had your fare amount of hardships..."

A sneer slowly grew on her lips as she answered him as vaguely as she could. "I'm not different. 'Just the normal passer by that can't seem to get past someone trying to kill her precious people."

Never in his life had Haku ever felt an urge to growl like an animal, but at this moment he almost had. Why was she avoiding his question? He swiftly took out all of his remaining senbon. He wanted to put her down, and he _will_.

...

Naru instantly rose, seeing that he was finally getting serious, and she grinned. _Even if I can't kill him, maybe sensei can_, she thought. _At least I'll get a real fight out of this_. With her kunai still in hand she made three clones, and they appeared just as battle hungry as she was. She took a deep breath, and all of her clones attacked at the same time that she did.

There was kicks and stabs, mainly aimed for the real her, and only two clones were left as they punched and cut. Haku caught one of her clones' fist easily though as she aimed a slick punch, and she she used her free leg to lift and aim for his neck, but he dodged the kick like it was nothing before he pulled his free arm back, stabbing her with a senbon as she disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Only two Narutos left.

The last Naruto clone felt more energy and power as she aimed a particularly hard punch to Haku's gut, and she was surprised that she finally landed a hit as he fell to the ground with a clashing sound, like someone had broken a mirror. She frowned, _What the hell? _

The Haku on the ground was in pieces, shattered like glass and spread out in front of her before the pieces seemed to melt into water. She should have known that she couldn't land a hit he was too quick for her. She sighed ruggedly as she looked around, trying to find the boy that she was supposed to be fighting as she hoped that he didn't take off to fight Sasuke because she wasn't much of a match. Don't die, Sasuke, she thought, straining her eyes through the fog to see where Haku had gone.

She couldn't even see the mirrors now, they must have gotten further away while they fought. Luckily, she didn't have that terrible feeling like she did the last time. Maybe something good will happen this time?

* * *

Kakashi did it.

Though he didn't get the feeling that he was expecting to get when he usually kills off his enemy. It was a hollow one. His chidori was through Zabuza's chest, and the man's eyes had gone dim as they stared at Kakashi with the taunt he had when he was still alive. If he had really gotten rid of the enemy, why did it feel so wrong right now? He carefully drew his hand away, letting Zabuza's body fall useless to the bridge, bloody from the only wound that was deep enough to kill instantly.

"You killed him," he heard from off to his right and he turned his gaze surprisingly to see Sasuke standing there with minor scratches on his person. Where was Haku? Who was fighting him—did he assume right when he guessed that Naruto had arrived?

"Where's Haku?" he asked instead of answering the Uchiha.

...

Sasuke turned and looked back to where he had come from, where he had been planning on cutting in and breaking up the fight to help Naruto, but he had lost sight of them; they just kept getting further away from where he was. But, eventually the ice prison that this 'Haku' person had put up had fallen and become ice and Sasuke assumed that they were too far away from him to maintain it. Where _did _they go?

"Fighting Naru," he frowned. "I couldn't finish... so she said that she would, but that was a while ago... they disappeared."

Kakashi wasn't worried about the fact that Naruto had disappeared, he was just relieved that he finally had an almost complete confirmation to his assumption, and despite what he had just been told, a small grin was placed on his face. "I'm sure Naru will be fine, then. Go guard the bridge builder with Sakura-chan."

He missed the odd look that Sasuke had given him, but he instantly turned around to look for Haku and Naru, Naruto was going to need his help if she was fighting this kid with a blood-line limit. _And what made her want to take the fight off of Sasuke's hands instead of fighting alongside him? _

Didn't he teach them teamwork? Even so, maybe Naru had a reason, like he was expecting her to give him, and he couldn't find himself to be mad at her right now. At least Sasuke is alive.

* * *

Haku felt that Zabuza was gone and he felt empty as he stopped a few yards down the bridge from where he knew that Kakashi was fighting him. He failed, he might as well let Naruto kill him... What would be the point in living now? His gut feeling could scream at him all it wants that he shouldn't give up, but Zabuza had given him a reason to live, and with him gone, what would be his drive now?

He heard footsteps walking toward him, but he didn't dare look away from the scene of the Uchiha boy standing by Zabuza's dead body as the fog finally slowly receeded. But, he couldn't see his killer anywhere, and he knew that Sasuke couldn't have killed him no matter what.

Why did he have to stall and fight the girl as she had wished?_ Damn her_.

_I can't believe I failed him_, he thought.

"Haku," was the girl's rough voice, though he'd reluctantly admit that she had surprised him, he turned with empty eyes to meet her now shocked cerulean blue eyes. "Why do you look like that?"

"I failed him."

...

Naru frowned as a flash from yesterday passed by her eyes once again. It was the same one from before, except it played out longer, and showed Haku on her sensei's chidori, and her eyes grew wider. _He... he was going to risk his life for Zabuza... How could I have forgotten?_

She put that thought aside though as she thought over how Zabuza was left alive again after recieving senbon to specific spots, and another flash happened before her eyes as she remembered how Sasuke had died. "Zabuza," she began. "What did you do to keep him from dying the first time? When Kakashi-sensei was going to kill him?"

Haku finally turned to meet her gaze as he answered her emptily. "I temporarily shut down his body."

Naruto knew that he was about to ask the same annoying question as before as he got the same look on his face, though this time he looked to be more certain as he got ready to ask her to kill him, but they both ended up speaking at the same time "I won't kill you because you asked me to—"

"Naru, I want to ask you somethi—"

"Wait, what?" she asked him as he stopped as soon as she did. _He better not ask me to kill him_, she thought. _But I'll hear him out_.

A small smile ghosted on his lips before fading away. "I said I want to ask you something..." when she didn't answer he continued. "Why did you break off your partner's fight?"

That was easy. "Because I had a... vision, that he'd die."

"Clairevoyant?" Haku questioned. "Is that why you asked how Zabuza died?"

She nodded.

"You must have been on to something," he murmured. "I wasn't going to kill Sasuke. I wasn't planning to... When you spoke to me in the woods, I realized that I didn't want to kill anyone this time; but Gato was strict about killing the bridge builder, and Zabuza and I really needed the money; so I would have killed him, and only him. But your team got in my way. I only planned to place your friend in a temporary death state."

As the information sank in, Naru had an expression mixed with worry, horror, and relief on her face as she thought about what he had just told her. That meant, that Sasuke didn't die the last time... And if she wasn't meant to save Sasuke, then who was it? "What were you going to do if you knew Zabuza was going to die?" she asked hesitantly.

"I would have died for him, Naru..." his dark brown eyes which were close to black met hers in emptiness, and Naru felt her heart twist. "But, instead I had stayed and fought you. I have no reason to live, Naru; please—"

"No," she interrupted.

"Naru—"

_I can't be bothered with this now, Gato should be arriving soon, and if my plan from earlier works, so should Inari and the rescue patch_.

"Zabuza is dead," she told him as he was about to speak again. "But—no, listen to me. From what you were saying the last time, you looked up to him, and he used you. You're _not_ a tool. You _will_ find something else to live for. Besides, Gato should be arriving soon, and I'm going to need your help to defeat him and his mercenaries that he 'hired'."

She never strayed away from his broken gaze, and Haku noticed that she looked as if she had matured within the past days that he saw her even though she still had a long way to go. "What do you mean?"

"In my... vision... I saw that he came here to get rid of Zabuza and you since you couldn't get the job done sooner..." Naru wasn't sure why she was telling him all of this, but she felt relieved that she didn't tell him outright that she lived this day yesterday, even though she might as well have with the detail that she had given. "All I can say is, I don't think he was planning to pay you..."

* * *

Kakashi heard their conversation from start to finish, and he was now sure that she was Kushina Uzumaki's daughter, and apparently Minato had sealed the fox into his own child. He smiled, he found her at last, even when he wasn't looking for her.

What Naru had just told Haku seconds ago was all the proof that he needed that Naru was in the same predicament that her mother was in before she died. And though he couldn't confront her about it yet, he knew he could trust what she was saying now because she sounded so serious when she spoke to Haku, and he wasn't sure what he was going to do about it, so he stood against the railing of the bridge as Naru confided in a complete stranger who was supposed to be their enemy, which turned out not to be about nearly half of her 'gift'.

It didn't hurt much, though. Once they were finished speaking, Kakashi walked up slowly standing beside Naru. The first thing he noticed that was different about the boy was that he wasn't wearing his mask—that the boy's eyes were empty and he looked as if he were dead even though he showed various different signs of living.

"Kakashi-sensei," Naru turned to talk to him. "Haku said he will surrender and we can take him prisoner to Konoha to be questioned."

_No he didn't_, Kakashi thought, knowing that he heard their entire conversation. "Ah. But what was it that you were saying moments ago? Gato is on his way here?"

Naru looked like a theif getting caught with the scrolls at that moment before she slowly recovered. "Yes; when I was back at the house with Tsunami-san, two of his lackeys came by and spilled that Gato... should be coming by right about now."

Kakashi nodded, glancing at Haku once before asking the both of them. "How much chakra do you have left? Naru-chan, Haku?"

"Enough," both of them answered, and Naru half smiled before she finished the sentence. "To defeat that asshole; Tazuna _will_ get his bridge done."

* * *

Soon the scene from the day before, with Naru had played out again, except different people were playing different roles. Haku seemed to fill in Zabuza's part and he'd killed off the front line of mercenaries with his freaky ice-jutsu thing seemingly instantly, but Naru couldn't be sure if they were dead or not, with how soft Haku was... But, like Inari had promised, he came in with a shot of a bow and arrow, and the villagers behind him to scare off the rest to jump off the bridge and into the water. And then only only Gato was left; Kakashi killed him with his chidori.

Now, Naru, Sasuke, and Sakura looked at Haku with curious eyes as they wondered where would he go from here, while he was all alone. But, Naru wasn't much wondering so much as planning to sneak him into her village so that he wouldn't be so alone; she's been down that route, she won't let someone else go down the same broken path as she had. _That_ was a promise.

* * *

**Side Note:** I hope that wasn't a cliffy! I tried not to do another one of those. D: But, it's just so addicting to leave those, aha. It makes you ask more questions than you get answers, though. So I'll try not to do it too much. ^^'

**Explanation for Haku and Naru's behaviors**—so far they _do_ like each other, but they don't really notice it yet; I'll probably have some characters point it out to them sometime later. I'm just trying not to rush and have this story make no sense at all because I'm still trying to figure out a realistic way to have Haku get into Konoha. :/

And Sorry about Zabuza's death! :( I didn't want him to die, but I kind of needed him to for Haku to realize that he likes Naru-chan. :)

I hope you liked this chapter, though. :D


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